The Philadelphia Inquirer: Spike’s Trophies makes Hall of Fame-worthy move to save its business and help COVID-19 victims
The store has been around for nearly half a century, providing awards and hardware for the city’s most popular sporting events.
“We’re an event driven business. A lot of school awards, academics, outdoor events, think of the Broad Street Run, Regatta, Penn Relays, corporate events. There’s a lot of events that obviously aren’t happening right now because you can’t congregate to have events,” said CEO Keith Baldwin.
He says before COVID-19, he had never laid anyone off. But, with the closure of non-essential businesses and event cancellations during their busiest season, he was forced to deliver bad news.
“I’ve been here 40 years. I’ve got employees that have been here 40, 30, 25, 15. They’re family. When they hurt, I hurt,” he said.
Baldwin says he then called Beth Packel at Firstrust Bank to update her on the situation. She called him back about an hour later with an opportunity.
Another client, AnswerNet, needed remote callers to help book coronavirus tests for the state of New York.
“I said you just tell me how many jobs you need and I’ll fill them. Whether it’s locally here with my network and other people’s company, people I’m employing right now, employees from a local catering company, restaurant friend of mine. I’ve done other things to help them keep their people employed,” Baldwin said.
Just a couple of hours later, he called all of his employees back to rehire them.
He provided his employees with laptops so they could work remotely, and also got them headsets, which are currently in shortage.
Within days, those like Martin Guenther learned new software to become essential employees and avoid the wait for unemployment benefits.
“Now, it’s having a job and helping out. It’s essential work and I’m happy to do it. Because it’s helping people that are panicked and scared,” Guenther said.
Many are now also helping with the overflow of unemployment calls for the Empire State.
And with the need for callers surging, Baldwin is using his positions as the acting chair for the Small Business Board of the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia and president of the Award Associates of America to help connect AnswerNet with other business owners to bring their employees back.
“When I tell you my number one why is to save jobs, that’s what I’m talking about. And that’s emotional,” he said.
He’s been working around the clock to connect the dots for people to help create opportunities for jobs that address the current needs presented by the pandemic.
“People say you gotta take time. I said I’ll take time when I’m on the other side of this. I don’t know if that’s a month or two months. And that’s ok.” he added.
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