Sailthru helps with Hurricane Sandy Relief

Devastation. There’s no other word for it after seeing, first-hand, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. While many of our Manhattan-based employees were left without power and heat, once we saw news of what happened in other parts of the city – specifically, Staten Island and the Far Rockaways – we realized just how lucky we were compared to many who lost everything. And that we needed to do something, immediately, to help in whatever way we could.

We purchased shovels, work gloves, hammers and set out for one of the hardest hit areas – New Dorp, Staten Island – this past Friday, prepared to knock on doors and help anyone in need.  What we found there was beyond what we had expected…homes needing to be cleaned out prior to demolition, families without flood insurance literally not knowing how they would rebuild their homes, and their lives. A few photos we took from the scene:

On Saturday, we joined forces with over 500 others from New York-based startups to head to Rockaway, where we continued to help out in the area hit hardest by Sandy.

Throughout it all, it was the duality that surprised us most…the resiliency of the homeowners juxtaposed against the evident tragic destruction. The support of other teams we met up with, including Jon Stewart and the team from The Daily Show, and the kindness shown to us by the very people we were helping.

One of the homeowners made us lunch; another, embraced us warmly when we left her home, and a Marine even gave all eight of us a ride to the train station. It showed us both the power and the compassion of New Yorkers, our inspiring ability to come together in the face of tragedy and highlight that not only are we the city that never sleeps, we’re also the city that doesn’t quit.

Sailthru has made donations on behalf of our clients to the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, if you would also like to help Hurricane Sandy relief efforts you can donate here.

To see more photos from our Hurricane Sandy relief effort please visit our Facebook.