Future Tech Enterprise, No. 101 on the CRN SP500, is stepping up to help the Long Island community hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Holbrook, New York-based company has donated 5,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) 3M KN95 masks to Long Island Community Hospital and another 1,000 to Island Harvest, the leading hunger relief organization on Long Island.
What’s more, as a thank you to the doctors and nurses on the front lines saving lives, Venero is starting tomorrow offering free food and drink at the at the NOLE Cafe in Patchogue to all doctors and nurses up to $25 per day per individual with a $15,000 limit.
“I can’t express enough the gratitude and respect that I have for the heroes that are keeping us safe,” said Future Tech CEO Bob Venero in a LinkedIn post. “This goes to all the doctors and nurses that are on the front lines. There are no words that can capture and reflect how proud I am and honored I am to know so many.”
Venero is asking other technology solution providers to take up the challenge and step up to support doctors, nurses and relief organizations during the pandemic.
“We are doing everything we can to try to help our community,” said Venero, who tracked down the PPE gear via a social media post and paid $50,000 for the gear that he could distribute to needy Long Island organizations. “Now we’re asking other technology solutions providers to follow in our footsteps and pay it forward. I want other solution providers to match what we are doing! Let’s start a movement of giving back.”
Venero credited Ryan Nece, a former professional football player and his Ryan Nece Foundation – which has donated tens of thousands of masks to a variety of health care providers – for helping secure the N95 masks for the Long Island community. Nece is the son of former NFL superstar Ronnie Lott, who was elected to the Football Hall of Fame in 2000.
“Anybody on the front lines that are putting themselves and their familes at risk to support the folks that are dying out there deserve all the credit in the world,” said Venero. “Those are the folks that should be getting more attention than all the political partisan rhetoric that we see each day in the press.”
Venero said the solution provider community has always been a powerful force for change and good in the community. “We are a powerful community that can make a big impact when we are focused on the greater good!” he said.
Venero said it is vital that everyone in America gets behind the workers on the front lines saving lives. “It’s very simple,” he said. “If we don’t get behind our front line workers we are not going to have front line workers there to support each and every one of us. They are saving lives. It could be your Mother, Grandmother, wife or you.”