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The next morning on my way into work I was preoccupied with finding a trucking company that could ship our first order, 100 cribs to Flint Michigan. As I drove the 22 miles to my office a large white truck with red letters spelling out PITT OHIO EX- PRESS passed me. For some reason, even though this shipment was destined to go to Flint Michigan and there was no men- tion of that state in the name on the side of the truck, I was compelled to call them for shipping rates. After a long conversa- tion with their salesman, Dave DeCroo, in which he asked me questions such as: will the cribs be palletized (I wasn’t sure what that meant); do you have pallets and shrink wrap (I wasn’t sure what they were) it became evident that I needed a course in Shipping 101. Dave very politely asked me to send him an email explaining what my vision was for Cribs for Kids, including a mission statement.


Although this writing assignment was not on my agenda that Friday afternoon, I stayed late and sent Dave the informa- tion he requested and at the same time had developed the ‘bones’ of a grant proposal that would help to launch Cribs for Kids into new directions.


The following Monday morning my phone rang and on the other end was Dave DeCroo, the Pitt Ohio Express salesperson I had talked to the previ- ous Friday. He told me that he had


34 Connect And Grow With Women In Our Community


shared my email with the owner of the company, Chuck Hammel, and that Mr. Hammel said he would be happy to ship those 100 cribs to Flint Michigan. When I asked what the shipping rate would be, he said that he must not have made it clear. Mr. Hammel will donate the shipping.


Wow! It was almost too much for me to comprehend. He then went on to say that unfortunately Pitt Ohio was only in 14 states so any cribs going to the other states would have to be shipped by another trucking company. It was then that I realized the enormity of this do- nation: Pitt Ohio Express was donating free shipping on an ongoing basis to our partners in 14 states…..a donation that continues to this day. Once word of our low prices for the crib and free shipping got out, our partner list began to grow. Our first partner was New York City Health Department and since then we have added 430 Cribs for Kids part- ners throughout the country!


How have your prior career experiences prepared you for your journey in life? Unlike many people who find them- selves running a non-profit my back- ground was not social work or nursing.


I


had actually graduated with a business degree from Penn State University and for years sold for a large housing com-


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