Most people are now aware of the June 2008 record flooding in Cedar Rapids. Our plant was not affected although 16 of our employees are now in the process of cleaning up their homes or awaiting word to see if they will be able to rebuild. At our plant we were not only able to maintain printing and distribution of the Cedar Rapids newspaper, we also took on the emergency printing of the Waterloo Courier for 9 days. Our employees came to work, even though they were living with family or in hotel rooms. Their attitude was there wasn’t anything they could do to control the flood but they could come to work and make sure the news was getting out to others in our community and in Waterloo. Since then I have been approached almost on a daily basis by subscribers who were shocked that we were able to put their newspaper on their doorstep each morning and how vital the updates in the newspaper were to each of them. In Cedar Rapids over 1500 Gazette subscribers were flooded out, we have been holding their newspapers and making a herculean effort to locate each and every one to continue their service. Our employees are proud to have been a part of maintaining the quality of delivery for our newspaper customers and for our commercial customers. I am humbled by our employees’ dedication and the effort they put forth to maintain business as normal and proud to work side by side with them!
