General Manager Doug Cunningham explained that Penn Pallet was approached by a manufacturer of processed milk products that plans to send 10 container loads of their product to Haiti and needed a supplier of heat-treated, certified export, wooden pallets.

“The product that they’re taking over all is palletized so in order to load it onto the containers and load it off and distribute it is all going to be with pallets throughout the network,” Cunningham said.

According to Cunningham, approximately 5,000 reconditioned, heat-treated pallets are being supplied by Penn Pallet for the project.

Cunningham also noted that the manufacturer shipping the milk products to Haiti, who asked to remain anonymous, had also contacted other pallet companies to aid in the effort but Penn Pallet was the only one to answer the call.

Jerry Ames, Senior Sales Manager at Penn Pallet, coordinated the company’s involvement in the project, which got underway about two weeks after the Jan. 12 earthquake that decimated portions of Haiti.

“The thing is, the real reason we did this is after they called and asked us if we would get involved with it, is it is just the right thing to do,” Cunningham said. “We’re blessed with what we have as a society and as a company and as everything else. We’re blessed to have that and it is just the right thing to do.”

Cunningham added that Penn Pallet’s participation in the project would not be possible without the support of its customers and the freight companies that make the deliveries possible.

Penn Pallet also assisted with the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina.

“With Katrina we supplied a bunch of pallets that went underneath the ice when all the ice was being sent down, but it wasn’t in anything of this magnitude. The call wasn’t there for that much either,” Cunningham said.

Penn Pallet ships approximately 20 loads a day from its two locations in St. Marys and Woodland, which amounts to approximately 10,000 pallets being shipped to companies locally and throughout the eastern United States and Canada.

According to Cunningham, Penn Pallet Inc. is a company dedicated to quality and service of all of their products, whether they are used domestically or for shipping products throughout the world.

“We live in a very special part of the country,” Cunningham said. “Our people and our dedication to an honest work ethic is what sets us apart from many others.”