Warwick has become a makeshift memorial.
Local firms donate food, shelter, cash
Moments after a nightclub blaze that would kill 97 people and injure 187 in West Warwick, scores of Rhode Island businesses began playing a support role in aiding the victims and their families. That support continues unabated. Indeed, the state’s business community has been invaluable in assisting the emergency teams, police and non-profit organizations in their combined effort to help the victims recover from the tragedy, say all involved.
Banks, credit unions, bars, restaurants, law firms, health care agencies and hundreds of other businesses have chipped in to every aspect of the effort – raising at least tens of thousands of dollars so far, offering psychological counseling and legal representation, staging benefit concerts, and donating food and other goods and services.
“It’s been overwhelming, just a complete outpouring. It’s remarkable how many Rhode Island businesses have helped. It’s such a small family, and everyone has just opened their doors,” said Kristin Weaver, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross of Rhode Island.
The assistance from the business community began before the deadly fire was extinguished, when scorched, frightened and already grieving fire victims emerging from The Station nightclub on Jan. 20 were shepherded to the Cowesett Inn across the road, where rescue workers set up a triage center to evaluate and treat victims. In the days following the fire, the Cowesett Inn became a gathering place for firefighters and rescue workers to keep warm, drink coffee and get a moment’s rest from their gruesome work.
Within hours of the fire, the nearby Crowne Plaza Hotel offered its ballroom and other rooms as a base of operation for emergency workers and counselors and a support center for family members of victims.
“For five days they were bringing out food and coffee and drinks, cleaning up around us. Any request we had, if they couldn’t accommodate us they’d find somebody who could,” said Weaver.
Wal-Mart Co., which has stores in Warwick and Cranston, donated thousands of drinks and snacks, hundreds of plush stuffed animals, and hundreds of boxes of stationary, bandages, aspirin and cough drops to the Family Welfare Center at the Crowne Plaza, said Weaver.
“I’ll tell you, Thursday night happened and we had representatives from Wal-Mart calling my office. They showed up Friday at the Crowne Plaza to ask what they could do, and they were there Saturday (and) Sunday,” said Weaver. “Any needs that Red Cross volunteers had, they went to their warehouses and got it.”
In all, 53 businesses contributed to the endeavor at the family center, according to initial Red Cross records. Over 25 restaurants and grocery stores donated food, including 300 steak dinners that arrived at the Crowne Plaza on Friday from Restaurant Prov in downtown Providence. Four area florists donated flowers for families to take to funerals or the site where the fire occurred.
Toys ‘R’ Us donated boxes of toys for children at the Crowne Plaza. The telephone provider Verizon set up a cell phone station for family members and aid workers to call anyone, anywhere, said Weaver of the Red Cross. CVS opened their warehouse to the aid workers, she said.
Away from the site of the tragedy in West Warwick, banks and numerous other businesses have contributed to the victims and their families by establishing funds, donating money and offering other services. Sovereign Bank, Fleet Bank, the Centreville Savings Bank, Citizens Bank, and the Coventry Credit Union and the West Warwick Municipal Employees Union established five separate victim relief funds. All of the bank branches are acting as collection points for donations.
Several corporations have pledged significantly large cash gifts, including Nortek Inc., which has pledged $50,000, and Fleet Bank Rhode Island, which has pledged $25,000. Some corporations, including Fleet, have launched matching-donation drives for their employees.
Many smaller firms are offering their particular service. Abar Imaging Center, a Providence company that does photographic and digital imaging, is offering to produce free memorial portraits or pictures for the families of dead fire victims to display at funerals and memorial services.
“They’re coming in slowly. It’s difficult with the initial conversation on the phone, because I just don’t know what to say. I can only imagine what the families are going through. But they’ve been very appreciative that the offer was made – to a person they’ve said that. Maybe it’s one less thing they have to be concerned with,” said John Johnson, vice president of the Abar.
Cable provider Cox Communications set up donation boxes at 10 service centers around the state. UnitedHealthcare offered free, 24-hour telephone counseling for families and others affected by the tragedy.
The Rhode Island Bar Association is offering nightclub fire victims and their families the aid of volunteer lawyers in dealing with legal issues requiring immediate assistance, including health care and probate.
“This is a tragedy of immense proportion relative to the size of the state of Rhode Island. I think that the families are very distraught, for a lot of families younger people have died, and you just don’t expect your child to go,” said Richard Bready, chairman and CEO of Nortek.
Officials are attempting to impose order on the influx of cash gifts to the victims and their families. On Tuesday, Feb. 25, the United Way of Rhode Island assumed control of a new fund, ‘The Station Nightclub Fire Relief Fund.’
Approximately 25 state organizations and Gov. Don Carcieri set up the new fund to consolidate the various funds that sprang up in the first hours and days after the fire. It will also be a central collection point for fundraising activities, said Hank Sennot, a spokesman for the United Way of Rhode Island.
“One of the concerns is, if there are a half dozen funds, the families will have to go shopping from bank to bank and fund to fund, and no one wants them to do that. Good Lord, they don’t need that added pressure with the pressure that they’re going through already,” said Sennott.
No one had attempted to count up the money donated to the various funds when this report was compiled, but Sennott and several others said that at least tens of thousands of dollars have been donated.
“I have no idea, partly because this effort is beginning to take on a national
sort of perspective. It’s just too early to tell,” said Hank Sennott, a spokesman
for the United Way of Rhode Island.
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