Companies show support for hurricane victims

Companies in the capital region are finding creative and innovative ways to ease the suffering of Hurricane Katrina victims.

In addition to financial assistance, some business people are applying professional skills and expertise to make a difference in the lives of those facing tragedy.

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One locally owned moving franchise, Two Men and a Truck, donated equipment and services to transport 75 to 80 tons of relief supplies to a distribution company in Jackson, Miss. The movers partnered with radio station Z-104, which encouraged its listeners to donate food, water, clothing and sundry items at drop-off sites at West Towne and East Towne malls. Tim Lightner, owner of Two Men and a Truck, said within a few hours of accepting donations, contributors filled eight trucks. Two of those, he said, were semis.

"We've done a lot of work with area nonprofits. But I have never witnessed anything like this," Lightner said. "The outpouring was unbelievable, astonishing and awesome."

CUNA Mutual Group, a credit union financial services provider, donated $150,000 to the National Credit Union Foundation's National Disaster Relief Fund. In looking out for its credit union members, CUNA Mutual had field representatives there ready to help before the hurricane hit.

"That's our business," said Rick Uhlmann, a CUNA Mutual spokesman. "That's why we're here, to protect credit unions."

CUNA Mutual quickly restored local credit unions to operating capacity and began meeting the financial needs of its customers.

The Guild, a national distributor of original art and decorative items based in Madison, pledged $10,000 to the Craft Emergency Relief Fund to support artists who were left homeless and without a place to work.

Michael Baum, president of the Guild, said his company's mission is to reach out to artists.  "Artists are small-business people. When their homes are wiped out or made inaccessible, so is their business and their livelihood," he said.

Musicnotes.com, an online distributor of sheet music in Madison, partnered with performing artist and New Orleans native Harry Connick Jr. to donate the proceeds of every downloaded copy of Connick's song "City Beneath the Sea" to the Habitat for Humanity relief program.

Kathleen Marsh, chief executive of Musicnotes.com, said her company worked directly with Connick to produce a special arrangement of the song that had never been published. "Harry personally picked this song as the one he wanted promoted," Marsh said. "He has been so involved in the effort down there, it's just great that we could participate."

Musicnotes.com negotiated a similar agreement with songwriter Randy Newman for his song "Louisiana 1927."

Barbara Behling director of public relations for Culver's, a restaurant franchise company based in Prairie du Sac, was allowed to donate her services to the Badger Chapter of the American Red Cross. Having received a $25,000 donation from the United Way of Dane County specifically earmarked for administrative services, the Red Cross was still in need of trained personnel to coordinate hundreds of volunteers. Behling said she and 20 other Culver's employees drew their regular salaries while working for the Red Cross.

Several independently owned Culver's franchises in the region donated as much as 50 percent of their sales for one day to the Red Cross.

Preliminary estimates suggest that hurricane relief donations will exceed those collected earlier this year toward the recovery of areas affected by the South Asian tsunami.

Jane Richardson, director of community services at the Badger Chapter of the American Red Cross, said contributions from individual donors surpassed $400,000 within two weeks. Employee contributions matched by local companies as well as direct corporate donations will soon top the tsunami total of $600,000, she said.