Napa-based freight firm aids victims

By GABE FRIEDMAN
Register Staff Writer

Images of New Orleans from the past week have defied the imagination: thousands of homeless victims, dead bodies floating down flooded streets and a city bathing in a foul chemical stew. It didn't take long for one Napa businessman to parlay his company's services into on-the-ground relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Dean Smith, and his wife Diana run Active Air Freight, a travel agency for perishable products, right out of their home in north Napa.

As the scenes of carnage seeped out of New Orleans, Smith got on his computer and began sending out queries about how he could help. What he heard back was that people needed water. He hooked up with a food bank in Chicago and arranged to have seven truckloads of bottled water delivered to a FEMA distribution center in Alexandria, La.

"It wasn't the corpses, it was definitely the people stranded without food and water," said Smith. "I understand that things take time, but people shouldn't go two or three days without a bottle of water in their hands."

Smith consulted with his wife and decided that the business was going to put up $5,000 to help with the relief effort. They have also been in touch with an animal welfare group and have offered to truck cages or any other equipment that can help evacuate animals from the city.

"Usually, when there's a disaster, you get a sense that there's a pretty decent outpouring of relief," said Smith. But not seeing this, he made the decision to make a donation that would have an immediate impact.

While many other Napa businesses have begun fundraising efforts, Smith was one of the few who has already seen his contribution materialize. On Wednesday, his trucks picked up bottled water from a warehouse in Memphis, and delivered it to the distribution center in Louisiana, where hurricane victims received it.

Smith paid for the first three truckloads, all standard 53-foot trailers, and has since been offered all other truckloads at discounted prices. So far, four other truck loads have gone out.

At the same time, as reports about donations pouring into relief efforts flooded the airwaves, reports about swindlers making off with people's money were coming in. Making sure that his drivers had enough insurance was paramount, Smith said, adding that he didn't want to have to explain why a truckload of water never showed up.

Smith's company Active Air Freight is now receiving accolades along with food industry giants like Kellogg Company, Campbell Soup Company and Nestle USA. For a small company with only five employees, the donations were a sudden, unexpected hit to the wallet, he said. But it also felt better than just cutting a check when the holidays roll around, Smith said.

On the Net: http://www.secondharvest.org/site_content.asp?s=738

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