30 employees spent the day unloading, sorting and bundling donations that have been pouring in to the Salvation Army.
Matt Putnam, left, and Nancy Braga, right, both employees of Hasbro in Rhode Island, help sort out clothes at the Salvation Army on Boston Road in Springfield on Monday afternoon.SPRINGFIELD – A busload of volunteers from Hasbro Inc.’s Pawtucket, R.I. office arrived Monday to help the Salvation Army serve tornado victims.
Thirty employees spent the day unloading, sorting and bundling donations that have been pouring in to the Salvation Army since the June 1 tornadoes, which cut a 39-mile path from Westfield to Charlton.
The extra help was welcome at the charity’s Boston Road thrift and donation center, which has been dispensing everything from food, clothing and furniture to pillows, tooth brushes and toothpaste to tornado victims.
“It’s great – it’s really touching to have them here,” said Matthew D. Brownlie, the center’s assistant manager.
Dressed in blue Team Hasbro T-shirts, volunteers arrived just after 10:30 a.m., and were quickly put to work in the center’s back storage area. Each employee was given 2 or 3 volunteers to work with; by early afternoon, Hasbro volunteers were looking like experts – first sorting clothing by size and style, then hanging items on racks to be wheeled out to front display area.
“Tank tops, short sleeves, long sleeves,” said Matthew S. Putnam, Hasbro’s director of research and customer insight, explaining the proper sequence for hanging summer clothing styles.
Putnam has family living in Wilbraham, but said he would have volunteered anyway, given the extensive damage caused by the tornadoes. “It’s the right thing to do,” he said.
The volunteers were Hasbro’s latest contribution to the regional recovery effort. Forty employees from the Rhode Island office pitched in at the charity’s Liberty Street operation last week, and volunteers from Hasbro’s East Longmeadow plant have been working at both sites as well.
The toy maker donated $100,000 to the Red Cross on June 2, reflecting its broader philanthropic mission that includes helping Rhode Island children’s programs and recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters.
Hasbro pays the volunteers for a day of work, according to Karen M. Davis, vice president of community relations, who said the Springfield tornado is just one of many disaster and humanitarian causes embraced by the toy maker.
In other developments, Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on Tuesday will announce the leadership of the public-private partnership being formed to oversee a multi-year rebuilding effort in Springfield.
Two agencies – the Springfield Redevelopment Authority and DevelopSpringfield – will be involved in the recovery, Sarno said when he announced the plan on June 12.
On Monday, the U. S. Small Business Administration opened a tornado recovery center in Springfield to help businesses damaged by the tornadoes.
The office is located at the Springfield Technical Community College Technology Park at 1 Federal St., building 101; hours will be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, until further notice.
Frank Scaggs, regional director of the SBA’s field operation centers, said the center will make it easier for storm victims to obtain low-interest loans. The technology park also houses the SBA branch office, the Small Business Development Center.
The deadline to return applications for physical property damage is August, 15; The deadline to return economic injury applications is March 15, 2012.
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, stopped at the FEMA Disaster Center at Blake Middle School in Wilbraham Monday afternoon and said he had spoken Monday morning with Craig Fugate, top administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, and was told that disaster loans will be made available for non-profit organizations damaged by the June 1 tornado.
“These loans should be available to both Springfield College and Cathedral High School,” Neal said.
Edward Dawson, public affairs specialist for the SBA, said that businesses, private non-profit organizations and individual homeowners and renters need to complete applications for the SBA loans.
Dawson said SBA has given out more than 1,000 SBA applications in Massachusetts since the tornado, but so far only 37 homeowners and seven business owners have completed and returned them.
The applications can be reviewed at the FEMA disaster sites, which have been set up in the communities affected by the tornado, Dawson said.
Staff reporter Suzanne McLaughlin contributed to this story.