Marriott on the Move

As you all have seen on television, our upper Midwest region has been struck by a terrible natural disaster. Huge rains have fallen in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin. The rivers have been overflowing their banks and the levees are breaking. There's been massive flooding and thousands of people in the region have been evacuated from their homes.

Marriott has a lot of properties in these areas but, fortunately, none were damaged. It was a near miss for our Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, right near Iowa City, but the actions of the associates . . .

We're all aware that there was a terrible earthquake in China on the 12th of May. My heart goes out to the victims and the families. But I'm so proud of how our hotels responded. True to our Spirit To Serve, our associates, owners and franchisees rushed to action to help the community and their peers affected by the quake.

Forty-eight Marriott associates were directly affected. They either lost their homes or they were damaged, or their family members were injured. They have been given paid leave days, transportation to temporary shelters and medical subsidies for those who had been injured. Many of our hotels and regional offices have also held . . .

I want to tell you what I learned when I visited our Salt Lake City Downtown Marriott Hotel. You know, I just love to hear stories like this.

Back in March, Pamela Daley took her four year old daughter Sahara to Salt Lake City, Utah, for tests at Primary Children's Hospital. They stayed in our Salt Lake City Marriott Downtown Hotel. To get Sahara excited about the trip, Pamela told her daughter she'd get to see some real snow in Salt Lake City. Since she was from warm, sunny Arizona, Sahara was thrilled she was going to see snow and immediately thought about Santa Claus.

However, when they arrived . . .

It's that special time of year again here at Marriott. I'm blogging directly from our annual Awards of Excellence ceremony held at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center right near our headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.

We hold this ceremony every year to honor the best of the best within Marriott. This year, we honored nine individuals with the J. Willard Marriott Award of Excellence for consistently providing outstanding service. It's the highest honor a Marriott associate can receive. This year's recipients come from all over the world - Turkey to London and throughout the United States.

We also gave out two other awards tonight. The first was the . . .

By now, I think regular readers of my blog know that I love a good story. I enjoy hearing stories about great service and tales of perseverance and determination. They really inspire me and are a great pick-me-up.

I recently received a compilation of some great stories from the leader of our Residence Inn brand team. Our associates were asked to submit inspiring, moving stories from their properties, and the best ones were packaged into a book we call "We Are INNspiring."

My favorite was about a group of Marines who were displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and they were staying in a Residence Inn outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Two of these . . .

Last week, I told you about our Spirit To Serve Our Communities Day. It's held every May and our associates around the world are given time off from work to volunteer in their communities. They participate in activities that range from building homes with Habitat for Humanity to cleaning up local parks and rivers.

Since fighting hunger is so important to me, I have often volunteered at agencies that serve the hungry and receive food from America's Second Harvest - The Nation's Food Bank Network, an organization our company has supported since 1992.

Hunger is an important issue to me because our roots go back to 1927 when my . . .