SERVPRO Joe in the Commuinty

11/4/2021 (Permalink)

What Can We Do To Help?

SERVPRO is a Fire and Water Cleanup company.  Our mission has been to reliably help residents, business owners, and commercial property owners deal with property damage from storms, fires, sewer spills, and the disruption these calamities can cause. 

The last 18 months has definitely been a momentous time in history.  People around the world have been through a global crisis with few precedents.  The shut down of all but the most critical infrastructure affected whole nations for many months.  Boarders, governments, and even great distance between continents failed protect us.  But life was still happening behind all those closed doors.

Because SERVPRO is in the business to help people recover from property damage, in many cases cleaning up pathogens like the bacteria in sewer spills and the health concerns from mold spores, we were one of those businesses deemed an Essential Service, staying open to help restore and maintain healthy living and working spaces.  

Hence, SERVPRO of Glendora/San Dimas remained active throughout the Pandemic providing our usual restoration services with the addition of Certified Antiviral Cleaning, disinfecting properties with confirmed Covid contamination. We were also asked to support several of the major insurance carriers by providing cost estimates for insurance claims, acting on behalf of insurance adjustors who were directed to avoid unnecessary contact with their customer base.  In short, the pandemic kept the restoration business very busy throughout the crisis.

It’s true, we are one of those industries that benefited from the increased work created by the global situation.  However, it’s been very hard.  For many months, our employees worked incredible hours meeting the needs of our customers.  But despite the challenges, finding meaning in what we do and being good at it has helped keep our team motivated and moving forward.

On a philosophical level, our business has always supported giving back to the community.   In the spirit of answering the question above “What Can We Do To Help?”, SERVPRO of Glendora has traditionally tried to share our good fortune when we can help make a difference.  Our contributions are modest in the context of the needs of the organizations we support, but we hope we have also inspired others to extend themselves to share what they can, making the effort go a little further.

Some of the organizations we have raised donations for include Relay For Life, House of Ruth, Wounded Warrior Project, Ann Roush Burn Foundation, and Kiwanis and Rotary Food Drive events.

Directly related to the Pandemic, in early 2020, during the first months when hospitals in Los Angeles County began to fill with infected patients, the shocking reality settled in that many medical institutions were going to run out of supplies.  

Among the shortages, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was identified as critical to First Responders who themselves would be at great personal risk unless they had the proper safety equipment, including masks and face shields.  LA County Leadership was called upon to help figure out how to get PPE to these heroes who would be so critical to saving lives and controlling the outbreak.  

One of the solutions was to get help from organizations who had production capabilities and expertise to make up the shortfall in the required PPE.  Among the organizations who stepped up was a Non-Profit called the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI).   Provided with philanthropic donations, LACI proposed to mobilize and coordinate production facilities and enlist out-of-work people as elements of a Face-shield production program.  

Using our company Trucks, SERVPRO of Glendora volunteered to support the distribution of thousands of face shields LACI would eventually produce to hospitals throughout Los Angeles County.  

Fast forward to June of 2021.  The Pandemic and personal protection protocols in many parts of the country, including Southern California, is starting to recede and life is creeping towards to a new normal.   The LACI organization has fulfilled their commitment to LA County First Responders, producing and delivering approximately 125,000 medical grade face shields to doctors, nurses, and other care workers.

For our part delivering these face shields, SERVPRO of Glendora was actively answering the question, What Can We Do To Help?  We feel like we have been part of something important, something bigger than ourselves, pretty much right where we want to be every day.

We certainly hope you never need our property restoration services, but the reality is wildfires, storms, and common plumbing failures will continue to be a part of our lives. Our advice is:

1. Prepare for the unexpected with periodic maintenance inspections 
2. Know who to call when you need reliable emergency services 
3. Be ready to get out when the order to evacuate comes from emergency responders

Contact our office about a free Emergency Ready Profile (ERP), a very useful application for your smart device that we help you install.  You’ll be better prepared when an emergency does strike, saving time, property, maybe even lives. 

As we inch up on our new reality, SERVPRO’s core business remains restoring properties and returning control to those affected.