August 28, 2011 was a day none of us at Hypertherm will forget and one that our Community Service Time program was designed for. It was the day Hurricane Irene, by then a tropical storm, hit our community in the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire.
Northern New England normally escapes the wrath of hurricanes and tropical storms, but we weren’t so lucky this time. The full brunt of the storm stalled directly over the region, dumping an enormous amount of rain and causing widespread flooding and damage. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed, mile upon mile of road washed out.
The next day more than two dozen Hypertherm Associates were unable to get to work because their houses, roads, or communities were devastated by the rain and floodwaters. One stranded Associate hiked to his elderly neighbors’ house to bring them food and water, then hiked down to the General Store in search of more supplies.
On that first workday after the storm, from instinct, hundreds of Associates asked to use their Community Service Time to help. Associates at Hypertherm are given 24 hours, the equivalent of three full work days, of paid time off each year to volunteer. Throughout the following two weeks, our Corporate Social Responsibility Project Manager was on the phone multiple times a day. She spoke with volunteer fire departments, town managers, volunteer coordinators, and even Vermont State Representatives from neighboring communities over the border, like South Royalton, Hartford, and Sharon, to figure out what support was needed and where. From those calls, she compiled a list of needs that was then emailed out to the entire company summarizing where our Hypertherm volunteers could report the next day to help.
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