While countless DSA member companies have provided assistance and support to those affected by Hurricane Katrina on that fateful day in 2005, still others have responded in a moment’s notice to various natural disasters across the country.
Similar to Other DSA companies outreach, when a catastrophic tornado devastated Joplin, Mo., last spring, Jordan Essentials executives and independent consultants alike felt the direct impact immediately.
While Jordan Essentials’ headquarters is located just over an hour outside Joplin, many with the company—as well as their close friends and families—lost their homes in the disaster. “The Jordan Essentials family mobilized almost immediately,” said Nancy Bogart, the company’s chief executive officer. “We partnered with our consultants’ families and donated kits with lotions and soaps and our consultants rallied together and brought in cleaning supplies.”
The Jordan Essentials team united so quickly to help the residents of Joplin that the company never needed to issue a press release or organize an official event in order to draw a great turnout of distributors and families who were eager to help.
“We knew many of these people—they were part of our own family,” Nancy said. “It was such a quick effort to mobilize everyone. Our first wave of outreach lasted for close to two months. We drove over to Joplin after the tornado to help our own families but it was so bad there that it was like something out of a movie. You felt what you could do, you had to do.
“One of the most interesting parts of it was that we have a closed Facebook group through which we communicate with members of our sales force and we were able to communicate with one of our consultants impacted by the tornado even while her emails and phones were down,” Nancy continued. “She got onto our Facebook page and conveyed to us exactly what people in Joplin needed.”
For months after the tragedy, Jordan Essentials distributors shared their stories with one another, including several who spoke at the company’s convention.
“It helped all of us to know we were able to do something,” Nancy said. “Our distributors were so eager to help—they brought laundry soap, sheets, clothing, everything…our whole front office was packed [with donations]. It was an amazing feeling and it was so good for our consultants to feel like ‘my company stood by me.’ A lot of companies shut down in and around Joplin after the tornado and some people lost their jobs, but our consultants never had to.
“I think that’s a great thing about the direct selling community—none of us are simply working in a cubicle,” she continued. “Instead, we’re a community and these people who were impacted were people we’ve known personally, we’ve met their families, we’ve hugged them and we’ve celebrated their successes. You do what you can for them and you find out firsthand that you’re able to make an impact even after such an awful event.”
Source: Direct Selling Association
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