Post by Grace Georgi

A man trying to call FEMA reached me instead. My company is called FINA Consulting. Over the phone, the names sound almost identical. Last week, a stranger named Benson dialed the wrong number and got me. He was disabled, caring for his younger brother, and the city of Tallahassee had just disconnected his power. To make matter worse, the city of Tallahassee was under a heat warning and temperatures reached the high 80s by 10am. A utility pole on his property had been leaning on a fence for months, and the city told him he had to repair it himself before they would restore service. He didn’t completely know how. He didn’t have the money. He didn’t know who to call. So he called FEMA. I was at work when his call came through. I couldn’t help him myself. So I called the one person I knew could. My mom, Julie. She showed up at his house with food and water. She posted on Facebook. Within hours, the Tallahassee community had organized. Mike Cote at Tallahassee Electrical Services volunteered to replace the entire pole for free. Tim Mosley with The Less Fortunate Still Matters Foundation came to check on him. Local news picked up the story. 50 hours after the city cut his power, Benson’s lights were back on. I’m sharing this because of what it taught me, not because of what I did. My grandmother, Fina, spent her whole life helping people. Not just when it was easy. Not just when it was convenient. She helped when it cost her something. When the person on the other end was a stranger. When the timing was terrible. That was the standard she set, and it’s the standard my mom has carried her whole life too. FINA Consulting is named after my grandmother for a reason. The work I do is technical. Financial systems. Change management. ERP implementations. But the why underneath the work has always been the same as hers. Take care of people. Show up when it’s hard. Notice when someone is falling through the cracks of every system that’s supposed to help them. The systems I help organizations build are different from the systems Benson needed. But the principle is the same. Systems are supposed to serve the humans inside them. When they don’t, someone has to be the person who picks up the phone. We should all be looking for opportunities to help people. Especially when the call is inconvenient.