Holland America Line Donates 800 Televisions
Published on modern agent: December 11, 2007
Holland America Line found itself with nearly 800 used television sets in good condition from the Westerdam. As part of its ongoing Signature of Excellence fleet upgrade program, the sets were gradually replaced with new flat-screen TVs every Sunday when the ship returned to Fort Lauderdale on its weekly cruise schedule. Ann Burris, Holland America Line’s community-relations representative in South Florida, contacted Neighbors 4 Neighbors, a 15-year-old public-service campaign run by CBS4, South Florida’s CBS network affiliate. Neighbors 4 Neighbors sent an email to a long list of charities and that generated calls from organizations wanting TVs, Burris said. “I literally had calls from over a hundred charities wanting the TVs,” she said. “I tried to assess the need and quality of the charity in selecting those that would receive the TVs - I probably could have placed 10,000 of them if we had them to give!”
The sets were offloaded on Sundays at International Warehouse Services Inc. at Port Everglades, which provided free storage space and handling of the sets. On Tuesdays, the sets were picked up by the charities, with IWS employees helping to load them. South Florida charities that received television sets include Alhambra Heights Residential Force, Borinquen Health Care Center, Broward Partnership for the Homeless, Camillus House, Children’s Harbor, Citrus Health Networks, Community Partnership for Homeless, Concept House Inc., The Educational Fund, Fellowship House, Good Samaritans Action, Henderson Mental Health Center, MACtown, Partnership for Recovery Inc., Ronald McDonald House and The Village South. Dec. 4 was the last day of the program when the final lot of replaced television sets was given away.
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