UPM Unites to Join Earthquake Relief Efforts

By Shannon Miranda

Although many have seen the tremendous amount of recent support and restoration efforts for the victims of the Haitian earthquake this past year, support effort recently took on a more personal meaning for employees of United Performance Metals, out of Hamilton, Ohio. Senior Account Manager, Dawn Clark, received news that a manager at a customer's location had lost a daughter in the earthquake. She had been doing missionary work in Haiti when the tragedy occurred.

Molly Hightower, 22, had been volunteering and working in Haiti with the "Friends of the Orphans" organization. She created the idea of a shoe drive just six months before the earthquake occurred. Her family and friends decided to keep her idea alive and help out the relief effort by carrying on the shoe drive that such a caring and passionate woman had started.

Once word got out, UPM and many other companies sent information out to employees. Clark asked her co-workers at UPM to help this cause. Soon enough, pairs of shoes were rolling into the office. "My family and relatives donated shoes. We normally would throw our worn-out shoes away, so it felt nice to not throw something into the trash and instead have it put to good use, almost like recycling," said Tracy Graff, Supply Chain Sheet Planner. Dawn Haire, Distribution Segment Manager, along with her family, also donated shoes. "It was great to be able to help, though it didn't nearly offset the pity and concern we felt for those individuals. I wish we could have done more," stated Haire. UPM estimates that 500 pairs of shoes were donated to the shoe drive altogether.