Portlight Strategies


Portlight Strategies, Inc. is a 5013 organization based in Johns Island, South Carolina, USA, focusing on hurricane and other disaster relief.

History

Portlight was founded in 1997 as an organization to assist the disabled, by people living with disabilities. In 2008 through co-founder and chairman of the board Paul Timmons, Jr., Portlight assisted Patrick Pearson of Weather Underground in organizing relief for survivors of Hurricane Ike in Texas. This led to a lasting partnership with Weather Underground and a change in focus to disaster relief, particularly for "the underserved, unserved and forgotten people," those with disabilities and in rural areas. Portlight has since organized annual fundraising walkathons called relief walks in communities around the US, with Weather Underground as sponsoring partner. In 2010, the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation awarded Portlight a $21,500.00 grant in association with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to pay for a deployable disaster relief module to assist disabled people in the first two weeks after a disaster.

Assistance activities

Examples of disasters in which Portlight has partnered with individuals and groups to deliver assistance: