Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the word “power” – and it’s not hard to see why.
Last week millions of people temporarily lost theirs during Hurricane Helene, and more than a million are still without it.
An interesting thing often happens when communities experience widespread power outages. Among other things, the people who still have electricity or working generators will usually open their homes to friends or family members. Then as some people’s power is restored, they’ll often lend their generators to those who haven’t been as fortunate. Meanwhile many businesses and relief organizations will turn their operations into comfort stations and open them to the public.
In other words, those who have power are more than happy to share it with those who don’t.
During the coming weeks and months, I’m hoping that you and your organization will be willing to do the same, at least in a figurative sense.
You can, for example, share the power of your logistics services with ALAN and our partners so that critical relief supplies can get staged, stored, transported and distributed more readily.
You can leverage the expertise of some of your powerfully skilled logistics personnel to help non-profits with questions about transportation, operating material handling equipment, or other logistics-specific inquiries needed to facilitate essential relief activities in some of the communities that have been hardest hit.
You can wield the power of the pen (aka your social media and online channels) to continue sharing the story about this disaster and its survivors’ many ongoing needs, especially as Hurricane Helene stops making headlines.
Or you can use the power of your checkbook to make a donation to ALAN or another disaster relief organization of your choice in order to support ongoing response and recovery efforts. (Sometimes we call these donations “keeping the lights on” – and we mean that quite literally.)
Just as important, you can put the power of love into action for Hurricane Helene’s survivors. They’ll need a great deal of that active love as they pick up the pieces.
On behalf of all of us at ALAN thank you for all you have done – and will continue to do – to help us serve as a light in the darkness during difficult times like these. Now as always, we’re able to make a much more powerful difference in the lives of disaster survivors because of you.
Kathy Fulton
Executive Director
American Logistics Aid Network
