Nearly 300 furloughed employees of Key West’s Waldorf Astoria Casa Marina and The Reach showed up at the Casa Marina on Friday, April 24 to pick up care packages for their households.
Human Resources Director Greer Cornell coordinated the relief effort by contacting the hotel restaurants’ vendors and purchasing supplies and groceries for each of the two hotels’ 340 active employees.
Cornell worked with managing director John Trovato, hotel manager Evelyn Summer and Andrew Rosuck, director of sales and marketing, to box up the packages and distribute them in a safe, distant and orderly manner.
“We started at 10 a.m. and have already had about 200 employees come through,” said Summer.
The care packages included two rolls of toilet paper, a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread, a giant can of soup, microwave popcorn and fresh vegetables such as a head of lettuce, zucchini, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, onions and black beans.
“It’s absolutely money well spent and a great way to connect with our team members,” Trovato said. “Although most employees were furloughed, they remain employees and continue to have access to their health care benefits. They can also use their vacation time and accrued PTO [paid time off].”
