UPS director Craig Arnold (center) works at The Salvation Army's headquarters in Port-au-Prince with Salvation Army personnel Major George Polarek (left) and Bob Poff, Director of Disaster Services for Haiti (right).

Recently we told you about UPS’ help with The Salvation Army in coordinating flights and shipping more than 80,000 pounds of food and water to Haiti through the Dominican Republic. They’ve been a significant resource in getting our major emergency supply shipments out of our storage warehouse in Miami to on the ground where help is needed most.

In addition to their planes, UPS has also dispensed another invaluable resource that is making an impact on the ground  – volunteer Craig Arnold. Craig is the sales director for UPS’ northern California region, but ever since disaster struck Haiti, he has been using his vacation time to work day and night in Port-au-Prince at The Salvation Army’s command center serving as a logistics coordinator and driver. He has seen firsthand the good and the bad, from the hordes of suffering patients being brought into The Salvation Army clinic to the new babies that have been born on the compound.

While Craig said he believes The Salvation Army’s long-standing 50 year relationship with the Port-au-Prince community has helped relief efforts, Craig himself also has an established relationship with The Salvation Army. His parents were Salvation Army officers for more than 40 years, and he currently serves as a San Francisco Salvation Army Board member.

USA Today featured a story about Craig in their  Sunday (Jan. 24) paper, quoting him on his most recent visit to the Haiti as ” a life-changing experience,” and describing his amazement how Haitians’ “spirit has still been strong, how they don’t give up and how they are still helping each other.”

According to an interview he did for the UPS blog, Craig says much of his time is spent traveling the precarious roads to and from the Port-au-Prince airport in order to retrieve emergency shipments, relief workers, and medical teams. He has also been integral in helping with operations around The Salvation Army compound, including assisting with the massive feedings that have served more than 24,000 meal kits to Haitians.

Thank you, Craig, for your personal involvement in helping to alleviate the needs of Haiti and your unique service to The Salvation Army!