BJ’s hosts Chamber After Hours with hurricane supply update
For BJ’s Wholesale Club General Manager Cindy Newmaster, keeping the community in need of supplies after a hurricane is nothing new.
A long-time manager for the corporation, Newmaster was in Orlando in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley that hit hard in Central Florida, with Hurricane Francis on its tail. She is now at the store on Pine Island Road on the border of North Fort Myers and Cape Coral.
“We had trucks full of generators and we had people lined up all around the building,” she recalled.
BJ’s officials hosted the monthly North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce After Hours Networking event last Thursday, and she talked to local business representatives about the status of supplies in the event of a hard upcoming hurricane season.
“We carry a lot of the products people may want to stock up on in a regular basis,” she said. “But we are also getting shipments from trucks this week with extra water and more supplies, in case they are needed.”
The display she and Community Relations Specialist Sandra Aguilar put together for chamber members showed everything from generators to propane tanks, first aid kits to canned foods and sternos.
While many may think that the wholesale club only serves members, she said that non-members are welcome – especially in an emergency. They can also go there anytime, without membership, and even order supplies on line to be shipped to their homes.
“One nice thing is that we accept EBT (state agency vouchers) like those from the Red Cross, similar to food stamps, for supplies,” she said.
She said in her experience, people in Orlando weren’t prepared for Hurricane Charley, and her store had a lot of hard work getting supplies to those in need after that hurricane.
“No one knew where Charley was going to go until it hit,” she said. “For Wilma, they were more prepared.
Aguilar also reported on the company’s recent contributions to Operation Gratitude.
“BJ’s Charitable Foundation just gave $50,000 to Operation Gratitude do do care packages for our troops,” she said. “We also, as a company, collected over 100,000 letters from people in the community to send to troops – nearly 1,500 from our store alone.”
Aguilar is a board member of the North Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce.
BJ’s Wholesale Club is located at 1929 Pine Island Road. The phone number is 829-3300.