A Little Bright Spot In The Dark
From: Bryan Meyers
Subject: Woot saved my life
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2010 5:23 PM
My name is Bryan Meyers. I have just been evacuated from the Haiti earthquake. One of the things I had with me when the quake started was my cell phone; stuck to its back was the Lumpod LED flashlight that I had received some time ago in a Woot Bag of Crap. I had to walk through the dark streets of Port-au-Prince six miles to get to a secure place. I walked over rubble, bodies (dead and injured), downed wires, back alleys. The flashlight lit my way very reliably. As I said in my journal, THANK YOU, BAG OF CRAP!
If you’re interested, you can read my journal and view some pictures at www.bmeyers.net/haiti or at haiti.bmeyers.net.
From: Matt J. Rutledge
Subject: Woot saved my life
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 9:01 AM
Bryan, Thank you so much for sending this. I have shared this with all of our employees and I expect they will all be as deeply moved as I am by it. We don’t deserve credit for anything of course, but I appreciate your feelings and the mention. I have no way to relate your experience directly but I’m sure it must be life changing. Against the grim picture of what’s taking place there, it is very inspiring.
We have been brainstorming on further ways for Woot and the Woot community to help with a donation program. I believe your story – even magically involving the BOC - really brings things home to the IT/Internet community and I’m pretty sure we would like to incorporate it as a Woot blog mention and newsletter item announcing a donation program.
Best wishes to you and your family from everyone at Woot.
Matt Rutledge
Founder, CEO Woot Inc.
If you've already given elsewhere, know that we respect your generosity during this terrible disaster. If you haven't, please consider one of the other charities we've previously mentioned on our blog. Here's our short list:
American Red Cross
Online: http://www.redcrossstl.org
Telephone: Call 314-516-2782 or 314-516-2800
Text message: Text the word “HAITI” to 90999, and a $10 donation
will be given to the Red Cross payable on your next mobile bill.
Doctors Without Borders
Online: http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
Telephone: 1-888-392-0392
UNICEF Haiti Earthquake Relief
Online: http://www.unicefusa.org/haitiquake
Telephone: 800-4UNICEF
Food for the Poor Haiti Earthquake Relief
Online: http://www.foodforthepoor.org
Telephone: 954-427-2222
World Vision Haiti Earthquake Relief
Online: http://www.worldvision.org
Telephone: 866-280-6587
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund
Online: http://clintonbushhaitifund.org
We're very pleased that our jokey little website was able to provide a member of the community with some help when it was needed, and we're so glad Bryan is safe. We hope his story helps to inspire you to donate as you can, just like it inspired us.
