Gasoline being delivered to competitors stations.
Budweiser converting their beer line to cans of water. (Which they
have done since the great SF Eq of 1906).
Victorias Secret donating generators (big ones).
Home Depot, Lowes, CVS, on and on and on.
Companies and banks waving fees, the list is endless.
What the heck, they owe us that much eh????
Mind you, the following is just from the Chicago area!!!
Corporate donations, products flowing to storm cleanup
Chicago-area companies are taking steps to assist in Hurricane
Sandy recovery efforts, donating money and goods, making their
employees available and getting products on the shelves of hard-hit
areas.
“One of the biggest pushes is just getting the materials from all over
the U.S. and getting them into the market,’’ said Imran Jooma, a
senior vice president at Sears Holdings Corp. "The government,
FEMA and such rely on us to get those items in the market.”
Sears said it would provide materials and manpower for rebuilding
homes through charity partners in local communities. Such efforts
resulted in more than 1,000 homes rebuilt in New Orleans following
Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Jooma said.
Other firms are finding their services more in demand as result of the
storm.
The BusBank, a Chicago-based on-line charter bus booking service,
has seen its business up 10 to 15 percent in affected areas, said
Marketing Director Brandon Dudley.
“So many people can’t get to work or they used to take the subway
or their office is not in its normal location,” he said.
Companies are using the service to transport employee and patients
to temporary offices and facilities, while agencies are using it to get
recovery workers to sites closed to cars.
Illinois electric utility companies have shipped workers east.
Chicago-based ComEd has sent about 800 workers, while Ameren
Corp., the St. Louis-headquartered firm that serves part of Illinois,
has dispatched more than 600 workers and 200 trucks as part of a
mutual assistance network. Utilities that have requested the
assistance foot the bill.
ComEd employees and contracted crews went to Philadelphia and
Baltimore Saturday and then to New York on Wednesday, said
spokesman John Schoen.
Other companies are coming through with money to aid the recovery.
Abbott and its foundation, the Abbott Fund, are giving about
$820,000 to charities helping the East Coast and has provided
another $180,000 in nutrition bars and drinks and medical supplies.
The supplies are distributed to Chicago-based Feeding America for
food banks and to Direct Relief International for free clinics.
A number of businesses have implemented matching program to
encourage donations from their employees and customers.
Exelon Corp.is matching employee donations to the American Red
Cross disaster relief effort dollar for dollar, with no limit.
United Continental Holdings Inc. is giving air miles to those who
donate to AmeriCares, the American Red Cross and Feeding
America and is matching the donations up to a corporate total of
$100,000.
Discover Financial Services, headquartered in Riverwoods, is
matching any donations its card holders make from its cash back
program up to a total of $500,000. Its members donated $3 million to
Haiti in 2010, and Discover kicked in another $1 million.
The credit card company also is temporarily waving the merchant
transaction fee it typically charges the Red Cross.
Cheryl V. Jackson is a freelance writer.
More Help
The Pampered Chef, through Feeding America, is donating more
than $350,000 in towels and dishcloths to help with the cleanup.
Ace Hardware Corp., headquartered in Oak Brook, has donated
3,600 pairs, or $12,000 worth, of work gloves to the American Red
Cross for cleanup.
Chicago-based McDermott Will & Emery LLP law firm is helping with
some pro bono legal efforts.
Park Ridge-based Healthcare Information Services, a physician
management company, is providing free coding and billing, and
sending out claims to insurance companies and patients for
physician pratices impacted by the storm.
ItaliAsia, at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza, will is donating 5
percent of proceeds from dinner sales in November to the American
Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.
Chicago’s Goddess and Grocer chain through November is allowing
customers to donate to storm relief through its online ordering site at
www.goddessandgrocer.com. Patrons will match donation totals that
are added to orders.
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