Samaritan’s Purse disaster relief team and volunteers count on Featherlite for mobile kitchens, showers and bunk houses.
Case Study Details
Samaritan’s Purse mobilizes staff and equipment and enlists thousands of volunteers to provide emergency aid to victims of tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, floods and other natural disasters in the United States. Headquartered in Boone, NC, the group also often stays behind on the scene after their initial response to rebuild or restore houses for needy families.
To better take care of its volunteers, the group has turned to Featherlite Specialty Trailers many times since Featherlite first built custom work tool-carrying trailers for Samaritan’s Purse in 2011.
Shower/laundry trailers
Featherlite designed and built 30-ft. trailers that feature six individual shower stalls, sinks and dressing spaces, and a laundry room with stackable washers and dryers for volunteers’ on-site use at natural disaster locations.
“Of all the trailer units we have, the shower trailers are the ones that really stand out,” says Luther Harrison, Samaritan’s Purse vice president of North American Ministries. “Because after all the volunteers have been cleaning up filthy disaster debris all day, they can take a shower. It’s such a huge blessing for them to have this available.”
Mark Ackley, Featherlite specialty sales manager, added: “A special feature of the trailers is that they have a huge continuous diesel-fired water heater, as well as air-conditioning units. The heater is designed to keep up with the incredible demand for showers by large numbers of volunteers.”
Kitchen trailers
Hundreds of volunteers mean a lot of hungry workers who need to be fed on-site. Featherlite worked with Samaritan’s Purse to develop 30-ft., fully operational kitchen trailers. And these aren’t just some carnival food truck with a deep fat fryer.
The units are safe, clean, hygienic, commercial kitchens with extensive appliances; stainless steel prep areas; convection ovens; walk-in refrigerators and freezers; warming-rack ovens; six-burner stoves; exhaust hoods; fire suppression; and more, all up to health code standards.
Bunk house trailers
Samaritan’s Purse staffers are often on location at disaster scenes for long periods of time. The organization teamed up with Featherlite again for five more purpose-built trailers — 36-ft. bunk houses, each with three separate bedrooms with queen-size beds, storage space and individual heat and air-conditioning units. There’s one common area bathroom with a toilet, shower and sink.
“Our Featherlite trailers are unique builds, they’re something that we and Featherlite have spent a lot of time thinking about how to do it best. They are very specialized to meet our exact needs in providing disaster relief across the country,” said Harrison.
For more information on how to put a custom Featherlite specialty trailer to work for your company or organization, call Featherlite Specialty Sales at 800-800-1230.
“Our Featherlite trailers are unique builds, they’re something that we and Featherlite have spent a lot of time thinking about how to do it best. They are very specialized to meet our exact needs in providing disaster relief across the country."
Luther Harrison, Samaritan’s Purse vice president of North American Ministries
