Sharing Talent, Technology, Time

On May 4, 2007, a devastating tornado struck Greensburg, Kansas. 

A group of Sun employees who live in the region mobilized.

As a volunteer effort, the group led by Dorothy Chikly reached out to see what could be done to help. An overview of what they did just ran in the Hays Daily News. Details below.

The employees involved make me proud to work here.

Their names:  

Joe Barkoviak, Client Delivery Executive
Charles Blackburn, Regional Services Manager
Don Chatfield, Deliver Services
Dave, Sun Fed SE
Dorthy Chikly, Customer Advocate Sun Learning Services
Tyler Evans, System Support Engineer
Richard Gilmore, Preemptive Service Engineer
Liz Griswold, Marketing Branding Manager
Paul Guis, IT Equipment Recovery Specialist for Sun
Jim Holzier, RE Manager for Kansas
Carla Morales-Bastian , Regulatory Engineer in Product Safety Engineering
Joyce Murata, Program Manager, Global Citizenship
Dale Roush, Sun SAR dept. (Asset Management Policy Group)
Jim Stewart, Kansas ISO account manager
Angela Wieskamp, System Support Engineer  

 The story...

Company helps with Greensburg's computers
Hays Daily News
By Mike Hammett

July 17, 2007

Dorthy Chikly, who works for Sun from her home in Overbrook, watched the numerous news reports on the devastation in Greensburg following the May 4 tornado that ripped through the town.

"Once I heard about the tornado in Greensburg, I wanted to reach out to the community," Chikly said.

Chikly said she could have donated money or worked with her community PRIDE program to clean up Greensburg. Instead, she chose to start rebuilding the government with Sun.

"I could help to rebuild the local government that reaches hundreds and thousands more than I could have as an individual," Chikly said.

Chikly traveled to Greensburg on May 16 to get a look at the damage and to see what it would take for Sun to get the government up and running again. After her initial assessment, Chikly met with other interested co-workers two to three times a week to begin getting various parts and programs together for Greensburg.

On June 18, Chikly and two Sun teams from Kansas City and Denver arrived in Greensburg. Chikly said it was a new experience for all of those involved from Sun.

"It was totally unique," Chikly said. "We had account executives and upper level management that were pulling cables. The people that were there on site volunteering their time, this isn't their day-to-day job. To be there and hands on and seeing the people that were living it, it was a whole different feel.

"We were on site 24/7, making changes to the schematics, customizing it, and doing quality checks and really helping them tie all of their systems together," Chikly said. "We were really keen on giving them flexibility and systems that will work better for them."

Chikly said the entire group was stunned by the amount of destruction.

"You see the pictures on the news, and you read the articles," Chikly said. "You're still not prepared for that level of devastation. It's mind boggling to understand how are they going to start, where are they going to start."

Chikly said that the company always has urged volunteer work from its employees, which is one of the reasons it allows employees to work from wherever they are located.

"It is a core value of Sun to do volunteer work," she said. "We had a lot of interest. We had a core team that really worked. For each individual that worked with the core team, they had co-workers that backed them up so they could work on this project."