Small Businesses Offer Big Help to Katrina Relief Efforts

Sept. 8, 2005 — -- Large corporations have been making a splash in the headlines for their Hurricane Katrina relief efforts -- like Exxon Mobil donating $7 million to the Red Cross or MCI setting up three communication centers in the devastated area. But many small businesses are making big contributions, too. Lacking the manpower, budget and connections of the big guys, they are still finding ways to improve the situation for Katrina survivors.

Below are examples of how small firms are pitching in for Katrina's victims.

"There are a lot of people who got out with the clothes on their back, their wallets and their cell phones," said Compact Power Systems' director of marketing, Rodney Rad. "Our lives these days revolve around the cell phone."

But Katrina struck more than a week ago, which means the cell phones probably have run out of batteries. And even evacuees who brought their chargers might not have anywhere to plug them in.

Compact Power Systems knew it had a product that could help: Cellboost, a single-use charger that can recharge a cell phone without connecting to a power outlet or other outside source of electricity. It can provide a combination of up to 60 minutes of talk time and 60 hours of standby time.

"We wanted to put people in touch with their loved ones," Rad said.

But for the company, located in Woodland Hills, Calif., distributing the Cellboosts -- which retail for between $3.99 and $5.99 -- proved to be quite an obstacle.

"I think we called about 20 organizations," Rad said. "A lot of the organizations were saying that they couldn't accept the donations now, but were interested in them for later."

Last Thursday, the company sent 500 of its phone chargers to the Baton Rouge River Center. Hearts with Hands, an Asheville, N.C.-based nonprofit organization, accepted 1,500 Cellboosts, which were given to their volunteers to distribute to Gulf State residents. A group from the sheriff's department of Orange County, Calif., that was traveling to the Gulf Coast with trucks of supplies took another 500. The company is also making arrangements to donate more Cellboosts to the Salvation Army.