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Nite-Hawk's'Red Cross/Katrina' Sweeper |
-- October 24, 2005; Updated December 14, 2005 Nite-Hawk's celebrated eBay auction to help the Katrina relief effort ended on Sunday, November 27th, when their 400DX sweeper on an Isuzu chassis went for a high bid of $49,655.00. This allowed the company to distribute at least $35,000 to the American Red Cross.
"It all started after watching the devastation on the television from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Many of our customers lost much of what they had. We expedited units and parts to the areas that were hit hard, but it just didn't seem like we were doing enough. We started getting emails and pictures of the disaster area and we wanted to do more. "We sat down with our employees and came up with a plan. Our employees volunteered to donate their time on the weekends to build a unit that we could auction. We sent letters to our vendors describing our intentions and received an enormously positive response. Most of our vendors were willing to do what ever it took to help. The end result was we were able to produce a new 2006 model NH400-DX unit on a new 2004 Isuzu with all the options. We werenÕt sure what to expect, but after the auction was over, we are donating at least $35,000.00 to the Red Cross! "It has been great to be able to contribute to a good cause and along the way meet some terrific people from both inside and outside of our industry. In fact, the person who purchased the machine is not even in the sweeping business! He is just a person who thought he may want to get in the business and wanted to contribute to a good cause. "We received tremendous promotional support from Sweeper Market, naPSa, WorldSweeper.com, Cygnus, the Red Cross and from our vendors. Both our current and potential customers have been very supportive and have made all the hard work very enjoyable and fulfilling. "We have had a great 2005 and have some big plans for 2006. We have some great new products and will continue to push forward as the original hydraulic sweeper manufacturer."
The sweeper package was available on the NPE West show floor for viewing in-person by attendees. That's where the above photo of Tracy and myself was taken. The goal set by Nite-Hawk Sweepers was to generate $40,000 in profits. Within a few days we should know how close they came to their goal, since the sweeper package sold for $49,655. Over 40 vendors, including WorldSweeper.com, contributed something to the effort.
For more information about how the hurricanes affected those within the sweeping industry, check out the audio interview about Hurricane Katrina conducted with Lisa James, of Big Easy Sweeping you should definitely do so. The companion set of photos sent to us by Louisiana sweeping contractors, Warren and Brigette Burge, of Clean Sweep, Inc., are also very compelling. 
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 © 2005 World Sweeper
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The total package was a fully loaded Nite-Hawk model NH400-DX, mounted on a new 2004 Isuzu Diesel Cabover. All of the profits from the auction will be donated to the American National Red Cross. The sweeper, which was built in the last week of October, was put up for auction just prior to the NPE west show which started on November 17th.
We commend Tracy Day and his management team for getting involved in this worthwhile cause. If you want more information,