Responding to Haiti
Booz Allen employees demonstrate that there are many ways to help in a crisis.
The day after the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Booz Allen Hamilton Chairman and CEO Ralph Shrader e-mailed a memo saying that the firm would match staff donations to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund, dollar for dollar.
Less than 24 hours after that, Booz Allen employees had already donated over $75,000 to the Fund.
On the evening of January 12, McLean associate John Morrison, one of 38 members of Booz Allen’s Volunteer Emergency Services group of first responders, deployed to a site near Port-au-Prince with Virginia Task Force 1 (VATF-1) to conduct search and rescue operations. The team consisted of 72 personnel, 6 search and rescue dogs, and 48 tons of equipment and supplies. International search and rescue teams aided in more than 130 rescues in Haiti.
“Booz Allen is always ready to do its part when there is a need in a community,” says principal Joe Suarez. “What Booz Allen does and has always done well is empower our employees to get engaged where they can.”
By January 22, employee donations to the American Red Cross had tallied $238,000, which Booz Allen will match. Staff using the firm’s online Giving Station were ensured that 100% of their contribution went directly to the non-profit.
Senior vice president Frank Smith, who also serves as fire chief in Great Falls, Virginia, is officer in charge of Volunteer Emergency Services. “In an emergency, everyone does what they can to support the effort: They make financial donations, conduct fundraisers in the community, support those who are deployed, or deploy themselves.”
Members of Volunteer Emergency Services are full-time Booz Allen employees with experience in roles such as firefighters, paramedics, canine handlers, search and rescue, and swift water rescue. Collectively, these employees volunteer 20,000 hours each year and are trained year-‘round so they can assist at a moment’s notice in providing emergency services to a community.
When members of the group deploy, other members provide volunteer backfill support, i.e., cover the everyday responsibilities for a deployed responder while they are gone. Twelve of Booz Allen’s Emergency Services members are in backfill roles in Fairfax County, Virginia, where VATF-1 originates.
VATF-1 is an international urban search and rescue response resource of 200 specially trained career and volunteer fire and rescue personnel who remain in constant operational readiness. Their expertise includes communications, structural engineering, logistics, hazardous materials, and more. Members join VATF-1 by invitation only; they must be one of the best in their fields to be selected. VATF-1 has partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and U.S. Agency for International Development, among others.
story posted January 27, 2010
