Aprio Comes Together for Hurricane Relief

On Sept. 6, category five Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean, wreaking unspeakable devastation and chaos. One of our clients, Comprehensive Orthopedics, is located on the island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which was heavily impacted by the storm. Julie Reader from Outsourced Accounting Services, who works with the client, reached out to the owner to make sure he was well. What followed is an amazing example of Aprio employees coming together to help our community.

After receiving assurance that our client and his team were well, our client sent a list of requested emergency supplies. Within 35 minutes, we had secured space on an AngelFlight departing the next morning for St. Thomas from Atlanta.

Over the past few weeks, we have been collecting even more donations, which were sorted, boxed and loaded onto a truck on Sept. 26. Two student volunteers from Life University drove the donations to Miami, where they were palletized and flown to St. Thomas so our client can distribute them.

The donations included over 1,000 toiletry kits (donated by our client The Packaged Good, thanks to the efforts of Spanx employees who assembled them), medical supplies (including scrubs, glucometers/diabetes testing strips and exam/surgery gloves from Medshare), over 1,000 pounds of tarps for temporary shelter, 100+ boxes of diapers and wipes, mosquito repellant and sunscreen, canned food and cleaning supplies (such as mops, brooms and buckets).

Members of the Aprio team were crucial to this effort. Susan O’Dwyer coordinated the entire effort for the firm, and Robert Melnick did a fantastic job of organizing, boxing and loading the supplies. Angela Dotson, Davi Kutner and Stephanie Oliver were instrumental in spreading the word and getting their networks to support us with donations. The men and woman of the 11th floor stepped up to help load the truck, giving new meaning to the phrase “many hands make light work.”

We were said to learn one of Valerie Hunt’s cousins was one of those killed by the hurricane. We extend our deepest condolences to her and her family on their loss.

Thank you to each and every person who helped with donations these past few weeks. This is an exceptional example of how everyone here at the firm lives our fundamentals. Over the last few weeks, everyone has brought it every day to provide relief for our client and the many others on St. Thomas affected by Hurricane Irma. Our thoughts remain with everyone recovering in the Caribbean.