Cruise line does an environmental and humane good deed
Years ago, Denver's Queen Anne Inn began donating partially used bottles of shampoo and soap left by guests to a local homeless shelter. After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, delegates to the Society of American Travel Writers annual convention were asked to bring toiletries liberated from hotels to be packed and sent to relief shelters -- and we responded. Therefore, the CNN.com headline "Cruise Line Donates Items Once Discarded" resonated with me. Diverting small bottles of toiletries from landfills and distributing them where they are useful made sense before, and it makes sense now.
Until recently, Holland America sent thousands of shampoo bottles and soaps, used or unused, into landfills. "But then the cruise line came up with a new use for the discarded items. They are now collected, separated into bins and brought through Customs at ports of call," CNN.com reported. Even though the process is labor-intensive and time-consuming and certainly not profitable, the Holland America launched a program called Ship to Shelter in Seattle, where the line is based, and recently expanded it to Port Everglades, Florida.
The report quoted Marti Forman Florida's Cooperative Feeding Program, which feeds about 400 people a day and provides hot meals and showers for homeless men and women and is feeling pinched during this recession. "The donations aren't there, the cash donations in order to be able to have expenditures like that to us have become a luxury item," Forman said. "If we have to decide between people having shampoo [or] people having something to eat, we're going to opt to have the food for them." With the cruise line's donations, she said that her program no longer needs to make that choice and has also seen an increase in the number of people coming to the shelter to use the showers.
For its part, Holland America now has also begun to donate TVs, crew uniforms, plates, silverware, and pots and pans, and as word got around among passengers, people have started to leave behind clothing, books and other items for Holland American to add to their donations to help the homeless.
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder