Industry organizations and companies donate to relief efforts - Brief Article

Home Channel News, Oct 8, 2001

NEW YORK -- Americans, as individuals and through their places of work, responded with remarkable generosity to the relief effort following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Below are some of the ways home improvement and building companies chipped in.

* Several of the nation's largest home builders established a fund, which was expected to exceed $10 million, to provide support and assistance to the victims of the attacks, their families and rescue workers. Separately, the National Association of Home Builders established a Home Builders Care Victims' Relief Fund in conjunction with its philanthropic arm, the National Housing Endowment. NAHB guaranteed its membership that 100 percent of all moneys collected go to funds that provide assistance on behalf of firefighters, police officers and other victims and their families. NAHB started the fund with an initial contribution of $250,000. The National Housing Endowment's board agreed to contribute another $125,000.

* The industry's two largest retailers, Home Depot and Lowe's, are lending their support to the relief effort in several different ways. Both are using their stores as cash donation points where customers car contribute money to, respectively, the United Way or the American Red Cross. Each said it would contribute at least $1 million to those organizations Each donated several truckloads of products -- including dust masks, flashlights, generators, hard hats, cleanup supplies, pressure-treated lumber and shovels -- to the disaster sites. Lowe's offered a dollar-for-dollar matching fund for employees who made contributions to the Red Cross through payroll deductions. Home Depot set up an emergency task force whose duties reportedly included watching television in the days after the hijackings to identify what supplies were needed most immediately and where they should be sent.

* Many retailers, including 84 Lumber, offered their stores as blood donation centers.

* Ace Hardware, the dealer-owned buying group, by Sept. 17 had delivered a total of four truckloads of donated products to rescue workers, ranging from safety goggles and bottles of water to work gloves, duct tape, generators and garbage cans. The following week, the co-op began collecting contributions from individuals and its members to raise funds for the Red Cross.

* Vendors also stepped to the plate, responding in different ways to the tragedy. Black & Decker, posted a special message on its Web site advising visitors of the various charitable organizations to which they could donate. The tool maker also provided a phone number for the FBI's hotline, which people could call with information about the attacks. Georgia-Pacific donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, and it also sent several truckloads of building materials to the disaster sites.

* The demand for American flags far exceeded the supply many dealers had in stock. Hardware store owners tried, mostly in vain, to find new sources of the red, white and blue. Flagpoles were also in short supply, but many dealers were able to make their own out of materials on hand. A hardware store in Green Bay, Wis., fashioned a flagpole out of a floor flange, a 45-degree plumbing elbow and a pipe nipple. In Elmhurst, Ill., a dealer drilled holes into bent thin wall and sold each piece for $1.50.