Siena-Francis House managers won't have to worry for a long time where the next square of toilet paper is coming from.
First Data employees collected more than 39,000 rolls of tissue for the Omaha homeless shelter. That's a 15-month supply, said Mike Saklar, executive director of the Siena-Francis House.
The shelter, which sleeps about 420 men, women and children a day, goes through about 2,600 rolls of toilet paper monthly. That's even though the staff rations the tissue by keeping the rolls behind the front desk, Saklar said.
The shelter put out an urgent call for toilet paper a couple of months ago when its supplies nearly hit bottom, down to one or two weeks' worth.
First Data's community council decided to launch a campaign, named the effort “Let It Roll” and set up a competition between departments. Twenty-eight teams entered. They bought, brought from home and otherwise collected the tissue in three weeks.
“They did not anticipate that they would be able to gather this many rolls of toilet paper,” said Nancy Etheredge, First Data's communications director.
The winners were Mary Hunt's team from the Financial Services Application Development, Payments group. The group collected 8,405 rolls.
They won a $110 gift certificate from Valentino's Pizza, which they promptly handed over to the shelter.
It will pay for a July 4th pizza party for homeless women and children, Saklar said.
He now has a good problem.
“We're scrambling to figure out where to put all of it,” he said.
A lot of the Charmin (and other brands) will be squeezed into the attic of the shelter's Baright building. Saklar also is looking for nooks and crannies around the shelter. “We're trying to get a storage unit to put outside,” he said.
Contact the writer:
444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
