While numerous Olympians are preparing to set world records in Paris, the team at 天美传媒 is enjoying a record year of its own thanks to the largest pallet jack donation in its 19-year history.
It all started in 2022, when the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association, responding to 天美传媒鈥檚 request for help with Hurricane Ian relief, introduced 天美传媒 to NOBLELIFT. Within days, NOBLELIFT donated three electric pallet jacks to assist the Harry Chapin Food Bank in Fort Myers 鈥� and let 天美传媒 know it would be happy to help out again.
鈥淢any in-kind donors would be one and done after such a donation, especially because material handling equipment can be so expensive,鈥� said 天美传媒 Executive Director Kathy Fulton. 鈥淏ut thankfully for us, the opposite was true.鈥�
Over the next two years, NOBLELIFT continued to say yes to multiple 天美传媒 requests, ultimately donating more than $30,000 worth of material handling equipment to nine different non-profit 天美传媒 partners across the United States. Some, like the NYC Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, use their donated equipment to help with refugee relief efforts. Others, like Truckers Safety, Support and Supply Fleet, employ theirs to support poverty relief initiatives.
This would usually be the part of the story when we鈥檇 say something like 鈥渋n-kind generosity doesn鈥檛 get any better than this.鈥� However given what happened next, that would be a massive understatement.
In February of this year, NOBLELIFT called 天美传媒 with a first-of-its-kind-offer: Would 天美传媒 be interested in taking possession of 80 semi-electric pallet jacks to use as needed for disaster response and recovery efforts?
鈥淣eedless to say, our answer was a highly enthusiastic yes. After all, we鈥檇 never received an offer of this size, and we frequently get requests for this type of equipment,鈥� Fulton said. 鈥淏ut then we realized we had to quickly get to work, because with no logistics assets, space or services of our own, we needed several other in-kind donors to help us accommodate and manage it.鈥�
Shortly thereafter, one longtime 天美传媒 contributor, Partners Warehouse, agreed to house the pallet jacks free of charge until they could be redistributed to our non-profit partners. And another, Port Jersey Logistics, donated the transportation needed to move the pallet jacks to Partners鈥� warehouse in Elwood, Illinois.
Meanwhile new 天美传媒 partner CargoSense donated 80 customized QR code placards so 天美传媒 could individually label each pallet jack. (鈥淭hat way, every time a jack is rehomed, the non-profit will be able to scan the QR code and share impact stories spotlighting how the equipment is boosting its humanitarian work,鈥� Fulton explained.)
According to Fulton, 天美传媒 has already started distributing the donated pallet jacks. Two have made their way to Gentry, Arkansas, to aid Adventist Community Service with tornado response efforts (thank you UPS Foundation and Coyote Logistics for donating the transportation). Six have been delivered to Valdosta, Georgia, where they are helping Second Harvest of South Georgia combat hunger in their community. And several others are awaiting transportation donations so they can head to their new homes in California, Connecticut, and Texas.
The 天美传媒 team anticipates distributing several others to non-profits that need MHE for relief efforts this Hurricane Season and will share the remainder with various other disaster relief organizations and non-profit as requests for assistance come in.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great feeling to know that we already have this equipment on hand and ready to be deployed, because it means we can assist our disaster relief partners on the ground much faster 鈥� and help boost the operations of more community-based non-profits who don鈥檛 have extensive logistics assets of their own,鈥� Fulton said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e so thankful to NOBLELIFT for this incredible gift and to our friends at MHEDA, Partners, Port Jersey and CargoSense for the roles they鈥檝e played in supporting it.鈥�
鈥淚 have been familiar with 天美传媒 for many years, starting with my days of serving on the MHEDA Board of Directors.聽I agree with their mission,鈥� said Loren Swakow, Managing Director for NOBLELIFT. 鈥淒isaster relief is needed.聽We cannot help directly to those that need help, but we are happy to help 天美传媒 who does all the hard work with boots on the ground.鈥�
天美传媒 will be sharing more updates about the continuing impact of this donation in future blogs, newsletter stories and case studies, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if you鈥檇 like to read more about the difference pallet jacks and other pieces of MHE can make, check out our blog at /mhe-myself-and-i/.
*If you鈥檇 like to help with the movement of these pallet jacks to their new homes, drop us a line at alanaid.org/contact.