Anybody visiting the Anguilla Stronger Relief Centre, located at Four Seasons Resort, owned by Starwood Capital Group, cannot but be overly impressed by the immense outlay of grocery relief supplies there.
It is like a giant sectional supermarket stacked with sacks, packs and tins of foodstuff of every description in every corner and open space. What makes it a really wonderful idea is that the relief supplies are all destined for the 1000+ employees of four hotels owned by the founders of Anguilla Stronger and their families who have been the lucky and grateful recipients following the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
The benefitting employees are employed at Four Seasons; Belmond Cap Juluca; Auberge Malliouhana; and Zemi Beach Resort. Together, they have raised over one and a half million US dollars to finance the supplies which also include building materials for deserving persons who suffered damage to homes and other buildings as a result of the hurricane.
Every weekend, Friday and Saturday, large numbers of hotel employees crowd the Anguilla Stronger Relief Centre with specially-supplied bags for their groceries and other household items. Not only are they patient, orderly and respectful, but the Relief Centre employees charged with the responsibility of delivery, follow a business-like and careful accounting system, complete with records and signatures and are very conspicuous in their Anguilla Stronger attire.
The Anguillian newspaper attended one such distribution event on Friday, January 26, to cover it as part of the national record. Lead Administrative Assistant at the Centre, Ms. Jaimee-Hodge-Connor, was asked for her comments. “We are distributing relief aid from 11 am to 4 pm today and 11 am to 3 pm tomorrow. The distribution happens every week as long as the boat with container arrives in time,” she explained. “We pre-package the items and our employees come for 11 am bringing their Anguilla Stronger bags to collect the items. Starwood Capital Group employs all of the full-time Anguilla Stronger Relief Centre employees and on distribution days, representatives from Belmond Cap Juluca, Malliouhana and Zemi Beach also work at the Relief Centre to distribute the aid.
“Tomorrow, we are also having a children’s book fair from 11 am to 4 pm. These are brand new leisure reading books that were donated to Anguilla Stronger by First Book and we are going to distribute them to the children of the employees from age 5 years old in the primary schools up to 18 years in high school. We received the last shipment of books on Tuesday, January 23. We have over 3500 books to give out.”
Asked about the source of the groceries and other supplies, Ms. Hodge-Connor replied:
“Beth Shanholtz, Creator of Anguilla Stronger who also works at Starwood Capital Group, places all supply orders in the U.S. leveraging Starwood’s corporate procurement expertise to purchase at discounted prices. The focus is on essential, non-perishable, healthy food items as well as personal hygiene and household items.
The rest of the dialogue, between The Anguillian newspaper and Ms. Jaimee Hodge-Connor, continued as follows:
“How long will this distribution continue?”
“There is no end date at this time. We plan to continue distributing relief supplies in addition to doing community service projects, until we have exhausted the funds.”
“Would you mind disclosing the amount of the funds?”
”Over the course of the inception of the Anguilla Stronger Relief Centre, more than one and a half million US dollars has been raised. Initially, the four Founders seeded Anguilla Stronger with significant donations and additional money came from donations from individuals in the United States and United Kingdom.”
“How are the employees reacting to this kind gesture?”
“All the employees are very appreciative of the items they are receiving, on a weekly basis, and they also appreciate the other activities that we are doing for them as well. Over the Christmas period we had a ham and turkey distribution, and we also hosted a Christmas party on the Sandy Ground ballfield where Christmas gifts were given to all children.”
On more than one occasion, the Government of Anguilla and other organisations expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the four Anguilla-based hotels and the various other donors to the Anguilla Stronger Relief Centre. To receive future updates on Anguilla Stronger’s efforts, follow them on Facebook (Anguilla Stronger), Instagram (AnguillaStronger) or Twitter (AXAStronger).
