Dear friends,

Last weekend Hurricane Harvey made landfall impacting the Texas coast, devastating families and businesses. To date, the cyclone has displaced more than 30,000 people, and inundated hundreds of thousands of homes in the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the US with nearly 6.7 million residents.

Unfortunately, the storm is not over yet. Our hearts go out to the victims, including our valued customers and business partners who have been affected by the storm.

We are working hard to stay in touch with our impacted friends, and support them as we can. If your retail stores or part of your retail infrastructure are located in the areas hit by the storm, we want to help get you up and running again faster by waiving all license reset service fees. Please continue working with your authorized Retail Pro Business Partner on data backup and recovery as our entire tech community is committed to helping your business get back to retailing.

In this time of need, there are other ways we are helping, and you can make a difference in helping those impacted by Harvey. One of the most valuable – join ranks with generous blood donors. Retail Pro International offices will host a #RetailBloodDrive at our headquarters but all of you in faraway places can help too. Those interested in donating blood for the #RetailBloodDrive may contact the following organizations to find a local blood drive and to schedule an appointment. 30 Minutes of your time will quite literally save lives.

Find a local center and schedule an appointment now:

• AABB: www.aabb.org; +1.301.907.6977
• America’s Blood Centers: www.americasblood.org
• American Red Cross: www.redcrossblood.org; +1.800.RED CROSS +1.800.733.2767
• Armed Services Blood Program: www.militaryblood.dod.mil; +1.703.681.8024

If you cannot donate because of health concerns or strong preferences, you can still support the communities hit by Hurricane Harvey.

Here are some organizations to keep in mind:

• Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, set up by the mayor of Houston to help those affected by the floods.
• Red Cross, accepting donations online or by texting HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation. You can also donate via iTunes.
• Save The Children, which is directly supporting families with children impacted by Hurricane Harvey.
• SPCA of Texas and Animal Defense League of Texas, both supporting animals and their owners who have also been victims of or displaced in the storm.
• Local Food Banks, donate to the Galveston County Food Bank, Food Bank of Corpus Christi, and the Houston Food Bank.
• Airbnb is offering free housing to those in affected areas which are most in need of shelter. You can help them by donating toward this cause on their site.

We are keeping all affected by the disaster in our thoughts and hope that more people from the retail community will join the ranks of supporters of Harvey victims.
Our help is needed now.

Kerry Lemos, CEO

This entry was posted by Ulyana Avetisov on Wednesday, August 30th, 2017 at 3:26 pm .