those areas.”
After renting two cargo vans, Gallagher and Bartley load-
ed them full of supplies from Costco and Walmart and
spent the rest of their time in Puerto Rico visiting those
more difficult-to-reach areas. Along the way they made
friends with Yvonne Schiffer who was there on her own
handing out water filters to locals.
When asked how they each managed to take the time off
and work remotely in order to make this volunteer oppor-
tunity happen, they both responded with much thanks to
their teams back in the states. “Internet was non-existent
in most areas so I had to rely on a sat [satellite] phone or
use cellular when available. My team was aware of what I
was doing and were 100% behind me so they held down
the fort while I was away,” said Gallagher. “I was lucky that
the CEO of ACES, Keith Mitchell, has a huge heart to help
people in need so he was really excited to have me go on
this trip. I worked as much as I could remotely but we did
not have any internet service most of the time so I relied
on my team to help cover my work while I was away,” said
Bartley.
Before Bart-
ley decided
to make the
trip himself,
A.C.E.S. Cargo
had decided
instead of giv-
ing gifts out to
our customers
and vendors
for
Christ-
mas, that they
would make charitable donations in their name.
delivering the supplies to their house and came to find out that
one of the ladies had recently lost her leg and had just had a pros-
thetic in its place. She insisted that she had to stand up through
her pain so she can hug us and take a picture with us. It was really
eye-opening to see how just a small thing that we take for granted
like a few water bottles, some food, and some solar lights can really
affect people,” said Bartley.
Since Gallagher Staging opened its doors just 6 years ago, Galla-
gher admitted that he’s always wanted to build the company in a
way that would allow him to help people in need. “It gets to be
a little tricky juggling time and efforts spent on the business and
what’s spent on passion projects, like helping JABOR and others.
I know if I stay focused, I’ll be able to do much more in the near
future.”
Inspired to develop some more long term solutions not just for
Puerto Rico but for future disasters, Gallagher aims to continue
working with JABOR to create a rapid deployment system that can
provide fresh drinking water to communities along with portable
crash-kits containing other supplies.
JABOR is always working on multiple humanitarian efforts and do-
nations are always needed to move forward on large scale proj-
ects. “Being self motivated to see an opportunity and get
involved is an amazing way to start. You won’t have to look
hard to find someone in need of help,” said Gallagher.
“You won’t have to
look hard to find
someone in need of
help.”
-Joey Gallagher,
Gallagher Staging
Among the many memorable, eye-opening experienc-
es, Bartley recounted one that really hit home:
“It was just about our second-to-last day when I posted
a picture on my Instagram story. Shortly after I received
a direct message from an old college friend that I hav-
en’t spoken to in years. She wrote to me to thank me for
what we were doing and tell me how most of her family
is there in Puerto Rico. I knew we still had some supplies
left and we would be driving all the way across the is-
land the next day. So I screenshot our route and asked
her if she knew of anyone in need of anything that was
near where we would be traveling. She told me about
her family who were still without water or power, along
with a young baby. It just so happened that they were en
route to the airport for us so we decided we would make
that our last stop and give them the rest of what we had.”
“They were so excited to have us come and were incredi-
bly thankful. We spent some time talking with them while
40
“After this experience, I have a newfound respect for the
Red Cross. Donating to them is an easy way to help and
I saw first hand that the donations really do go to a great
cause as they were doing so much good in Puerto Rico,”
said Bartley.
Additionally Gallagher is developing a website that will
make it easier to find local volunteer opportunities.
To learn more about how you can get involved, visit
JUSTABUNCHOFROADIES.ORG.