Bay Area LIFE: UPS Store in Santa Clara giving back to Bay Area
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- The UPS Store #4636 in Santa Clara is locally owned and operated by Ravinder Lal, Amit Lal and Pearl Castillo. Together with their friendly customer services associates they work hard to provide their customers with the very best. Whether you're a small business that needs help or simply someone that needs professional printing, customized packaging and shipping solutions or a mailbox, the staff at The UPS Store #4636 has got you covered.
In addition to great customer service, the staff at The UPS Store #4636 is also committed to giving back to the Bay Area. Whether it's volunteering at local non-profit agencies or helping out with printing projects, these employees are all about giving back to their community.
Over the last several years, the staff at The UPS Store #4636 has developed a relationship with the Bay Area's Sankara Eye Foundation and JW House. Both non-profit agencies have different missions but their goal is the same, to help others out.
Sankara Eye Foundation:
Sankara eye foundation USA was founded in 1998 with the purpose of raising much needed funds for our sister organization Sankara Eye India. Funds are used to build and operate super special eye hospitals in India. These eye hospitals provide totally free eye care for the poor and needy.
Prior to the formation of Sankara Eye USA, there was one hospital in India performing about 8,000 free eye surgeries per year. I am proud to report that now, there are now 8 fully operational hospitals in our group which collectively perform nearly 160,000 totally free eye surgeries per year.
In the coming three years they will be adding four additional hospitals online. With the 12 hospitals we anticipate being able to increase our capacity to nearly 300,000 totally free eye surgeries per year.
It is important to note that our audited results are on par, if not better, than most eye care provided in the developed world. Quality with compassion and without compromise is our driving motto.
JW House:
JW House is an independent nonprofit hospitality house in Santa Clara that provides family housing while loved ones receive treatment at nearby hospitals. JW House was the dream of a young man names Jan Willem, or JW, who was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer at age 14, and spent the remainder of his short life working toward his vision of a home away from home for families facing medical crises.
Out of this young boy's vision grew JW House, where we respect the dignity of patients, families, caregivers and volunteers, and believe that the presence of family helps the patient heal. We further believe that the challenges of serious illness should be faced together, that every day is precious, and that - like JW himself - we will never, ever give up.
The JW House mission is to keep families together during medical crises by offering a welcoming home, just steps away from the hospital, and by providing a caring and compassionate environment that inspires hope.
In this era of modern medical miracles, families often travel long distances to be treated in South Bay hospitals, and often their hospital stay is several days, sometimes even weeks or months.
As Silicon Valley businesses continue to thrive and grow, weekday hotel rates are skyrocketing, pricing hotel stays out of reach for most everyone. Even when one family member is able to stay bedside (such as in the Pediatrics Department), other members of the family are forced to sleep on hospital benches or even in their cars. In cases of critical illness, hospitalization for months at a time is not uncommon.
The cost for meals at a fast food or other restaurant over long periods of time is prohibitive for most families and most meals are not nutritious. JW House provides nutritious free meals to our overnight and day use guests.
Since opening its doors in 2008, JW House has hosted more than 42,000 individual visits, providing families a place of hope, hospitality and healing when they need it most. The need for healthcare hospitality houses, such as JW House, is great and growing rapidly here in Silicon Valley, as well as around the country. In 2015 a lack of available rooms forced JW House to turn away more than 125 families of critically ill patients.
