PHOENIX — If you've ever been to an Arizona Cardinals game, then you've probably walked past an employee for the company called "Pride Group, LLC."
“Basically everything on the outside of the footprint is us,” CEO of Pride Group, Robb Corwin, said. "We do the parking outside, security for them, the tents, the stages, the generators."
They provide resources for big-name events across the Valley, but on March 13, everything changed.
"It was just one after another, after another, saying we're not going to open. We're not going to pull off this event this week," Corwin said.
Corwin says he was forced to lay off about 400 employees.
"It's humbling to say the least," Corwin said. "Shocking and for the amount of people that we employ, it was heartbreaking."
But Corwin quickly came up with a plan.
"We called it pivoting," Corwin said. "We basically picked a company up, spun it 180 degrees, set it back down and said to our event manager, 'you're no longer running a major festival, now you're going to be running a COVID triage center doing that set up.'"
They're now using those same tents you'd normally see at events for mobile hospitals and testing sites instead.
"We provided mobile hospitals or triage centers for some places," Corwin said. "Provided PPE gear for others, came and helped with 10,000 food boxes for one community for a food drive and worked out the logistics utilizing our trucks and people."
He says turning into a disaster relief company isn't anything he ever imagined. But by using the resources they have, they hope it will help others.
"I fully believe in paying it forward. That's our motto," Corwin said. "That's what we're about. Just be a good human and that's what we need right now."
Corwin says they've worked with places like Banner Health, Chandler Regional Medical Center and the Gila River Indian Community to supply those much-needed resources.
To learn more about their business, click here.
