Going Above and Beyond To Deliver for Maui

FedEx supports multiple nonprofits, including the American Red Cross, Direct Relief, Heart to Heart International, The Salvation Army, Team Rubicon, and World Central Kitchen, that work to help communities recover from natural disasters. By providing charitable donations and in-kind shipping, FedEx continuously helps these organizations deliver critical aid, like medical supplies and meals, to those who need it most.

Through our company’s Delivering for Good program, we work with global disaster relief nonprofit organizations year-round to respond when catastrophes impact communities around the world.

Recently, FedEx and nonprofit organizations it supports have been on the front lines, delivering essentials to help those impacted by the wildfires in Hawaii. Internally, FedEx operations team members had to strategize logistics solutions quickly, given the inability to ship palletized freight into Maui due to equipment restraints.

When disasters strike, many organizations ship large amounts of relief via freight. It’s the easiest way to serve the impacted community quickly and efficiently. FedEx Senior Managers Cindy Fujii and Jessie Moniz of Hawaii implemented a work-around to meet the needs of our supported humanitarian organizations and more importantly, those impacted in Hawaii. Many of the large freight shipments were sent to FedEx Honolulu Heavyweight location (HNLRT) whereby that team led by Senior Customer Service Agent Roy Bodnar coordinated the movement back to the ramp to move directly to Maui. This was a collaborative effort between Honolulu Heavyweight department, the Honolulu Ramp, and Maui operations. Honolulu Ramp Agents coordinating with Maui Manager Talikavili (Tali) Eteaki ensured the shipments were prioritized. Ramp Agents – Edison Kiyota, Karlene Saleapaga, Kaena Kong, and Darius Tellez led the way for both AM and PM operations. All shipments were tracked, monitored and communications updated by a team of control room agents led by Cheyanne Garcia.

To complete the circle, Jessie and Cindy were in constant contact to oversee and coordinate each facet to ensure FedEx accomplished getting critical aid to the people of Maui. This included moving a forklift from HNL to OGG to maneuver all skidded freight. The HNL managers that assisted with this were Robert Loftus, Francis Hewlett, Jamie Mattos and Paige Salave’a.

“The thing I heard most from our employees was “what can we do to help”,” said Jessie Moniz, FedEx Senior Manager Station Operations.

To date, FedEx has moved 57 shipments of cooking supplies for World Central Kitchen, eight pallets of hygiene kits for Heart to Heart International, multiple shipments of power banks for Direct Relief, four pallets of cooking supplies for Operation BBQ Relief, and several shipments of communication equipment on behalf of American Red Cross. More information on FedEx Hawaii relief efforts is available here.