River News Now Breaking News Travel

Consultants Jim Haynes and Karl Miller each spent about 20 hours sandbagging at the Fargodome. “It never would have worked without similar efforts of tens of thousands of people,” Miller said. “I was only too glad to be of assistance.”

Haynes also sandbagged at the homes of Noridian employees and employees’ parents and helped build construction barriers.

In addition to the hours consultants spent volunteering on their own time; Upp Technology encouraged its 14 employees working at Noridian to volunteer March 26 while earning their normal pay.

“We have a rich history of going above and beyond for our clients. Whether it is supporting a local charity or in this case sandbagging to protect against a flood, we have a dedicated commitment to both our client’s business objectives as well as their community,” said Scott Upp Jr., vice president of Upp Technology and BCBSND account manager. “This dedicated response to a client in need makes us both proud of our culture and the caliber of people that we employ.”

Upp Technology’s flood-fighting pay donation is estimated to be more than $10,000.

Upp Technology consultant Carlos Guevara also volunteered, sandbagging for about 12 hours over three days at the Fargodome after putting in full workdays at BCBSND, where he's a Linux systems administrator.

Over the course of a week, Tom Moury, who works with Guevara on the system administration team, helped make drain plugs to prevent flooding at Prairie St. John’s Hospital. Moury also joined the crowds at Sandbag Central and helped reinforce existing dikes in south Fargo.

Working nearly 30 hours, Moury learned firsthand that sandbagging builds quite the appetite and volunteers hardly had time to eat. So “we fired up the grill,” he said, and went back out to “pass them sandwiches and sodas as we drove past.”

James Randall, Oracle database administrator, went above and beyond the call too. In addition to sandbagging, Randall paid a two-week hotel bill for a couple who had to evacuate their home. “I do not need or want to be reimbursed,” Randall wrote in an e-mail to Upp Technology. “This was done from my heart.”

Palmer Guttromson, Tom Prude, Barry Voorhis, Thierry Sleszynski, Brian Engel, Milon Islam, Suresh Thuppalay and Jim Blount are other Upp Technology employees who helped with the flood fight in Fargo-Moorhead.