{"id":9330,"date":"2013-12-30T14:00:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-30T22:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/?p=9330"},"modified":"2021-02-03T15:53:19","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T23:53:19","slug":"small-gift-big-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/small-gift-big-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Gift, Big Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Colleen Gray admits that when a frigid ice storm struck her hometown of Toronto, Ontario a few days before Chr<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-9331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2013\/12\/yardicharger-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"yardicharger\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/>istmas, she wasn\u2019t prepared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no flashlight, candles, tasty emergency food,\u201d said the Business Applications Leader for Real Estate Management Services, a <a title=\"Yardi\" href=\"http:\/\/www.yardi.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yardi<\/a> client. Her apartment lost power on Dec. 21 around 10 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Nor did she realize that power was going to be out for more than three full days. The storm knocked out electricity and other services to 300,000 Toronto residents, and a few hundred were still without power as of this writing on Dec. 30.<\/p>\n<p>Anxious to have the most up-to-date information on weather conditions, expectations for the next few days how friends, family and colleagues were doing, Colleen was glued to her iPhone, which she hadn\u2019t charged the night the power went out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was trying to get information from web sites, while at the same time rationing data access as I knew it drained the battery pretty fast,\u201d she told us in an email. But Sunday morning, she was already below 50 percent of her battery and had no idea how much longer it would be out \u2013 service wasn\u2019t restored until 6 p.m. on Dec. 24.<\/p>\n<p>Then she remembered \u2013 a tiny, battery powered iPhone charger was included in a gift for clients delivered at Yardi\u2019s recent Canadian client appreciation dinner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrilliant!\u00a0 This gave me enough juice to get through the day and evening. The next day I went to the office and was able to charge up both my iPhone and Portable charger to get me through another night.\u00a0\u00a0 It was a tremendous comfort knowing that I wasn&#8217;t going to run out of power when the only thing connecting me to information and friends and family was my smart phone .. and Facebook,\u201d says Colleen.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a tree branch had fallen onto her car, crushing the roof and front windshield of her car. Luckily she was able to walk to a nearby hardware for a flashlight, lantern and batteries. At night, without heat, she and her little dog Charlie huddled before a wood-burning fireplace and under blankets to stay warm. Around 20 percent of the city\u2019s tree canopy was destroyed by frozen branches falling during the storm.<\/p>\n<p>While the storm was still continuing, Colleen emailed Yardi Vice President\/General Manager Peter Altobelli to thank him for the charger that had happened to come in so handy. She\u2019s now convinced of why everyone should have an emergency preparedness kit on hand, and adds: \u201cThese chargers should now be in everyone&#8217;s emergency kit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colleen Gray admits that when a frigid ice storm struck her hometown of Toronto, Ontario a few days before Christmas, she wasn\u2019t prepared. \u201cI had no flashlight, candles, tasty emergency food,\u201d said the Business Applications Leader for Real Estate Management Services, a Yardi client. Her apartment lost power on Dec. 21 around 10 p.m. Nor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":9331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3354],"tags":[708,709,707,76,165],"class_list":["post-9330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-team-yardi","tag-charger","tag-ice-storm","tag-iphone","tag-technology-2","tag-yardi-client"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v24.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Yardi Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Colleen Gray admits that when a frigid ice storm struck her hometown of Toronto, Ontario a few days before Christmas, she wasn\u2019t prepared. \u201cI had no\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Small Gift, Big Impact\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Colleen Gray admits that when a frigid ice storm struck her hometown of Toronto, Ontario a few days before Christmas, she wasn\u2019t prepared. \u201cI had no\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/small-gift-big-impact\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Yardi Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-30T22:00:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-03T23:53:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2013\/12\/yardicharger.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Etling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Etling\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/small-gift-big-impact\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.yardi.com\/blog\/small-gift-big-impact\/\",\"name\":\"Small Gift, Big Impact - 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