Tuesday, September 23, 2008  by

Last week I was out on vacation to enjoy a little R&R from a summer full of travel. I spent the first two nights up north on the shores of Lake Michigan. There, I was treated to the after effects of Hurricane Ike, hours of rain and some beautiful whitecaps crashing noisily to shore.

While I was listening to the hypnotic sounds of the waves, my colleagues here were kicking our disaster relief plan into gear. After experiencing the call to action for the Southeast Asian Tsunami and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, folks at the corporation decided to put together a formal plan that allows us to pull together resources we have that can help in situations like these. The plan has various levels of response depending on the level of devastation and need. It really is amazing how many resources we can share from specifically trained workers such as carpenters and electricians, to a cadre of volunteers from our employee base, to outreach to hundreds of thousands of IBOs and their customers, to soliciting donations for charitable partners, to providing emergency personal care and clean up supplies...the list goes on.

With the new plan in place we were able to respond quickly to help those impacted by Hurricane Ike.

Our efforts include:

• Cash donations: we are sharing $100,000 in cash immediately to the American Red Cross and Save the Children
• Hygiene/cleaning kits and bulk product are being distributed according to need
• We've offered warehouse space for charities working in the area

 As we have in the past, we're also offering IBOs, employees, and customers the opportunity to donate to the American Red Cross online at amwayglobal.com by selecting the "shop categories" menu option and then clicking "charitable contributions".  IBOs are also encouraged to donate to Save the Children which is contributing portable cribs, diapers and other children's supplies to those impacted by the storm. Amway will match all gifts up to a total of $100,000.