Blanket Campaign Warms Survivors

BY DAN SADOWSKY | November 9, 2005

Country: Pakistan

Topics: Material Aid, Emergencies

Earthquake survivors are receiving tents, blankets and other supplies as winter approaches. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps

In the days following the Pakistan earthquake, Richard Berger couldn't escape the intensifying humanitarian crisis on the other side of the world. Each day, the ominous news flashes persisted.

"Not enough tents."

"Hundreds of thousands need assistance."

"Winter approaching fast."

While the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina generated huge, immediate outpourings of donations, survivors of October's earthquake in Pakistan looked headed for a crueler fate. Could this be another Rwanda, Berger wondered? Would the world someday awake to headlines of mass deaths, only to realize they could have been averted if someone had just cared a little bit more?

Less than three weeks later, one man's restlessness and a visit to outdoors retailer REI had started a chain of events that thus far has resulted in a future shipment of 26,000 cold-weather blankets to a Mercy Corps warehouse in Pakistan.

"What it basically came down to was my heart couldn't take it," says Berger, a 61-year-old Seattle entrepreneur who sells giant natural crystals and fossils found around the world to museums, corporations and collectors. "To think about that number of people, in that type of condition, and reading about such a small response from the international community…I couldn't rest with it, so I didn't have any other choice."

Berger started by thinking about what needs might have gone unfilled by big relief agencies focused on saving lives in the quake's immediate aftermath. Survival blankets, one of which Berger had once carried on a snowy New Zealand trek, came to mind.

So, on October 18, Berger pulled into Seattle's flagship REI store on his way home and purchased several varieties of cold-weather blankets. He'd already checked out others online. He went home that night and, as he writes in his e-mail, "I stretched and tore at each of them. I tried to set fire to them. I stood out by the water on a cold windy night in a tee shirt wrapped in them."

One performed impressively: the Heatsheets Two Person Emergency Survival Blanket, made by AFMInc. and marketed by Adventure Medical Kits. The heat-reflective blankets weigh less than three ounces, are fully waterproof and can cocoon two people at once.

Berger called Adventure Medical Kits and spoke with their marketing director, Frank Meyer, who put him in touch with the blanket's San Francisco-based manufacturer, AFMInc. At the same time, Berger called Mercy Corps.

"I needed some conduit, some organization that I could coordinate with to get these things on the ground. I heard so many great things about Mercy Corps that I didn't call anyone else."

Berger talked with Matthew Schwartzberg in Mercy Corps' Material Aid department, who agreed to run the idea past the agency's relief staff working in Pakistan. The team endorsed the idea, and Mercy Corps arranged to purchase the blankets and ship them overseas.

Berger remained committed to covering the cost of the blankets through contributions. Working with Schwartzberg and AFMInc's CEO, David Deigan, he got the price down to only $1 per blanket - including shipping. (The blankets retail for about $5.50 each.)

Early Monday, Berger sent a long, emotional e-mail appeal to 300 friends. He asked for donations be sent to Mercy Corps to cover the cost of the blankets, noting that each dollar would help protect two people from rain, wind and hypothermia.

Berger toiled for a week and a half on the heartfelt missive, he says, scanning countless news sites for compelling quotes and sorting through hundreds of disaster photos to find the dozen that he pasted into the message.

"What I wanted people to feel is that these are human beings, people I can recognize who are in a very difficult situation," Berger explains. "I wanted to use the photographs to galvanize people to act."

Less than 36 hours after hitting the send button, he'd gotten enough replies to realize that his message had morphed into a large-scale fundraising campaign. "Half of me is completely delighted," says Berger. "But I'm also aware of the fact it doesn't solve the complete problem."

Berger says his action proved the adage that a 500-mile journey starts with a single step. "When I pulled up to REI, I didn't have any kind of master plan. I just thought, this I could do."

He has similar advice for others who feel the urge to help but are overwhelmed by the need. "Because the situation is so enormous, do not necessarily conclude that you can have no effect. The question is, how do you make it small enough, how do you make it simple enough… The question is whether you can find your own part."

Richard Berger found his part in this disaster. And the world is better for it.

Note: Mercy Corps lightweight-blanket campaign is now fully funded. But urgent needs remain. To find out more about how we're helping survivors of last October's earthquake in Pakistan, and how you can help, click here.