Two major local employers in the Bradford area -ðZippo
Manufacturing Co. and W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. -ðrecently
shelled out $46,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief.

According to a press release from Zippo’s marketing company,
Blattner Brunner out of Pittsburgh, “included in the $46,000 total
are corporate donations of $10,000 each to the Salvation Army and
Habitat for Humanity.”

Zippo Marketing Communications Director Pat Grandy said Tuesday
the $46,000 figure is “a combination of (money raised by)
employees, the two companies and their owners.”

Zippo employees raised more than $3,000 in a gasoline card
giveaway and another $4,000 to benefit a New Orleans family whose
home was flooded in the aftermath of Katrina. The family is the
same one Grandy talked to The Era about weeks ago – a Zippo
distributor and his family, who were out of town on a trip when
Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, leaving them with what they
had packed for the trip.

Help from Zippo is still coming, Grandy added, saying company
officials and employees are currently looking into other avenues to
continue to raise funds for the hurricane victims.

Grandy also said he knew Zippo employees had donated money to
other organizations, separate from the $46,000 total the companies
are now touting.

“It’s impossible to imagine the heartbreak of losing everything.
While money can’t replace memories or mementos, it at least can
help people to begin picking up the pieces of their lives,” Greg
Booth, president and chief executive officer of Zippo and chairman
of the board at Case Cutlery, said.

At Case, employees held a Chinese auction that netted more than
$4,000.

Tom Arrowsmith, president and CEO of Case, noted that employees
stepped forward to assist in the effort, suggesting the fundraiser
at Zippo and the Chinese auction at Case. In addition to the
Chinese auction, associates at Case also donated non-perishable
goods to another corporate sponsored food drive in the Bradford
community.

Case Marketing Communications Manager Shelley Swanson said the
food drive was conducted in conjunction with the Dresser
Manufacturing Division initiative.

“Case employees wanted to be able to offer support as well,”
Swanson said, adding they came up with the idea for the Chinese
auction, which featured, of course, Case knife sets donated by the
company.

Local fund-raising efforts started shortly after the public was
bombarded with televised images of the devastation in New Orleans
after the storm hit the last week of August. Fund-raising efforts
on Zippo and Case’s part ran to the end of last week, Grandy and
Swanson said.

Zippo and Case also supported several other relief efforts,
including donations to the American Red Cross and the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) made by Zippo owners
George Duke and Sarah Dorn.

Zippo and W.R. Case are the largest employers in the Bradford
area, with a total of more than 1,200 employees in an area with a
population of about 10,000 people.