What last week's storm taught me

Last week was a rough one for many Mainers. The governor declared a state of emergency due to the  incredible tropical storm winds that disrupted power for over half a million Mainers. Last weeks storm caused even more destruction than the infamous Ice Storm of '98.

This storm also brought to our attention that our business, Wilcox Wellness & Fitness, and our home are on the same power grid. Talk about having all your eggs in one basket. We were without power from 8:30am Monday morning  to Thursday afternoon around 2pm.  

Last week reaffirmed many things for us both personally and in our business.

#1: Everything happens for a reason

While we were closed last week, a man with a gun holed himself up in an apartment building on 3rd street - adjacent to our gym. Police and SWAT teams used the empty parking lot of our facility as a command post.

If this were an ordinary week, we would likely have 30+ people coming and going from our facility for training sessions. We have full confidence that if we were open everyone would have been very safe.  The amazing Bangor police team had the incident well under control and it ended peacefully.  

We definitely would have all been inconvenienced and and probably shaken up a bit - the businesses across the street were locked down with no one coming or going.  Fortunately, we were without power so our community was not impacted by this scene.

Everything happens for a reason.

#2: People are good

It is the challenging times that really demonstrate what people are made of and pull communities together.

In our business, we saw our community pulling together with people offering others a place for a hot shower, internet, and power. Our clients joked that they were getting their workout on by doing ‘pick up stick burpees.’ And neighbors were checking on neighbors.

Even though our business was closed due to the power outage as business owners we still needed to keep powering on.  We feel so thankful to have been welcomed by CoVort, a local coworking space and the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce for the use of their internet and power (even though we may have smelled a little funny…)  

This truly was #theworstvacationever for our trainers and for most people and businesses impacted by the storm. Even though our trainers are hourly employees, we have decided to compensate them for their unexpected time off.  It is the right thing to do.

People are good.

#3: Perspective

This week has given us an incredible amount of perspective in regards to what is going on in the rest of the United States with wildfires, hurricanes, and in particular the ongoing power outage in Puerto Rico going on day 40+.

You never know how incredibly lucky you are to have food, water, shelter, power, internet, heat, etc… until you live without if for a few days.  

Perspective changes everything...

Those are lessons from last week.  I would love to hear from you.  What did you learn?  How were you impacted by the storm?

Until next time - Happy Training!
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Paige