Are you ready to get your BlueShirt dirty?

BlueShirt Corps heads to Baton Rouge.

BlueShirts are Best Buy employees. You see them every time you walk into a Best Buy store. They work with the latest and greatest new technology inside their local store to serve their customers and outside their store in service to their communities. They know this technology inside and out, and they're a great group of human beings!

BlueShirt Corps is a group of highly-trained, passionate Best Buy employees who have signed up to serve their communities in a new and meaningful way. BlueShirt Corps takes service to the next level by calling on these employees to use their technical expertise to do good...somewhere in the world for someone on the planet.

We announced our first BlueShirt Corps teams in the summer of 2008. This team was formed to work with the Red Cross during times of disaster. For certain disasters, the Red Cross needs to go into the affected community for several weeks (even months). When they do, they need to have a communications system in place so they're able to effectively communicate with the government, with other relief organizations, with local community leaders, and with those who are directly impacted by the disaster.

This is where we come in. These really special employees (with the support their families and managers) have agreed to drop everything when the Red Cross calls. They're flown (or drive) to the impacted communities to the entire setup and tear down of all the computer and telecommunications systems at the direction of the Red Cross. They do what Best Buy does best so that the Red Cross can do what they do best-serve people! They've gone through extensive training and are on call right now!

BlueShirt Corps is sponsored through Best Buy Community Relations and WOLF.

Mission: Baton Rouge

On May 3rd, fifteen BlueShirt Corps members will join the Red Cross Technology Team in Baton Rouge, LA for a special project. The Red Cross has facilities set up along the Gulf Coast to serve as communication headquarters during hurricanes (and other disasters). They're moving the Baton Rouge facility from one location to another and have ased us to send a BlueShirt corps team to help with this complicated move. Corps members will be responsible for diassembling all computers, satellite phones, etc. in one location and rebuilding the network in the new location.

Day One:

LP: This morning started out with a little stress. I received a text from one of our BlueShirt Corps members who was flying in from Indy with 7 other members. Their flight was delayed, and they were afraid they may miss their connecting flight in Atlanta. With bad weather across the South, this was an experience almost all of our members had this morning. Thankfully, though, the entire team (all 15 of them) made it safely to Baton Rouge by this afternoon. This was no small task given that we had members traveling in from as far away as Alaska and Washington state.

We kicked off the program with our wonderful hosts from the American Red Cross. They set up the expectations for the week and expressed great enthusiasm that we were able to be here for this exciting mission. We loaded the team into a 15-passenger van and headed to the first job site. The warehouse is exactly what you'd expect. It was an old building that had obviously been a retail store at one time (the Rx sign at one end was a dead giveaway). One end of the warehouse was full of the supplies that the Red Cross needs during times of disaster--blankets, first aid kits, and much more. The other end was set up with a few dozen computers and several dozen phones. With wires hanging from the ceiling, it didn't look like a small task to disassemble the location.

Before the tear down started, the team was able to go through database training with the Red Cross. This training is so critical to what we hope to accomplish in the future. We know this additional hands-on training will make all of our participants feel much more confident when they are needed during an emergency, and this is giving the Red Cross team a close-up look at our employee's unique skills. After that, the team was excited to dive in to the destruction. Wires had to be cut free from the ceiling and equipment boxed up for the move. The team completed the tasks ahead of schedule and impressed all of us!

We were able to have a great team dinner with our new friends from the Red Cross and talked about tomorrow's tasks. We'll be starting at the old warehouse in the morning and heading to their new location later in the day to begin the longer process of reassembling all the equipment that just came down. Lots of work ahead for tomorrow and the rest of the week, but everyone seems to be in great spirits and excited to help.

Thankfully there is no hurricane in the Gulf Coast tonight. But, when it does happen, the work Best Buy's BlueShirt Corps is doing this week is going to help the Red Cross do what they do best--take care of people affected by disaster.

The word that best describes how I feel today is grateful. Grateful to Best Buy for allowing us to do something like this. Grateful to the Red Cross for letting us try something new. And grateful to 15 people who left their families and friends for the week to help with this experiment as we do our part to help build the digitally connected world.

Day Two:

We're ahead of schedule! We were back at the first facility in the morning to finish up some tasks and for a great surprise. One of the Red Cross' communications vehichles was in town on the way home from a disaster, and they brought it by the facility to show us. This was definitely not your average SUV! Filled with equipment and with a satellite on the roof, this vehicle was valued at over a half million dollars. The team was definitely impressed! Afterwards, the team finished loading up the truck at the first facility and moved on to the new one.

Here's what they had to say about the day!

Sandy: Tuesday was a great day. We are ahead of the Red Cross time table. We made a lot of progress. Wires have been run across the warehouse, then we tethered them to the ceiling. We are back at the site this morning. We moved all of the equipment from the orignial site.
Alison: Site 1 is shut down! Site 2 has half the network wires hung and ready to be hooked to the server. All the supplies have been transfered to the new site. Tomorrow we will position the satellite, set up stations with computers and phones and finish the network!

Stay tuned to hear about the rest of the week!

Day Three:

Very proud of the team. I hear they're still well ahead of schedule and have found time to do some very cool training.

Julia reports: One team of five got to set-up a VSAT, which was an amazing experience. We were handed the instructions and given an opportunity to set it up much like we'd have if we were in an actual disaster learning as we went. The Red Cross not only has welcomed our team but also has encouraged us to learn every aspect of the job. We even had network cable crimping classes today while we worked on the wiring.

The team is getting high marks from our Red Cross partners which makes me so happy. Keith from the Red Cross posted: I've got to say that I've been very impressed with the team. They demonstrate professionalism, motivation, and knowledge, yet balance it well with fun, laughter and freindship.

Day Four:

From what I can tell, day four was all about friendly competition. As the team continued the hard work of setting up the new site, they were split into three teams and had a "chance to set up a Vsat today and sight it in with the satellite,"wrote Josh.

Reflections from the week:

After being home for a couple of days, we asked the participants to share some reflections from the week in Baton Rouge. Here's what they said:

Alison: I think we all learned something new last week and were able to teach each other new things. I think this was a great trial run for our next mission. We have all made some new friends and worked efficiently together. Some members from my store were very interested in what we were doing and wanted to learn more. I think we should hold a meeting at the wolf conference like you did two years ago so that we can share this experience with everyone. It was so awesome to have such diverse knowledge and it didn't matter if you were male or female, a secretary, sales operator, sales supervisor, part-time or full-time or a general manager. Everyone played an important role in this mission and without cooperation, we wouldn't have succeeded as a team. I hope we get deployed again this year.

Curtis: One thing that has stuck with me is the amount of people at the airport, the stores, the site, and the hotel that asked me what are all you Best Buy people doing (they had seen all the shirts)? When I would explain to them what we were doing they would seemed shocked at first. Some asked to shake my hand, others said they were now a customer for life at Best Buy, and for some it was a simple thank you. This trip has had an impact on me to want to do more, learn more, and live up to what JFK said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country."

Sandy: Let's see - We had fun while being the best. We helped a great organization , "The American Red Cross" live in a connected world. I wouldn't change a thing !

Thanks for following the BlueShirt Corps story. We'll continue to post reflections from the week. And...We'll have a video to share soon!