When massage therapist Kelly Cochran heard about the Haiti earthquake in 2010, she decided to join a group of colleagues and travel to the improverished nation to provide massage therapy to earthquake survivors. During this trip, she met a group of children orphaned by the earthquake.
“Within six months, she organized a volunteer medical team from the Reach Haiti Organization in Croix du Boquett, Haiti, and they established 100 temporary homes, allowing the children to move out of the tents where they had been living,” said Bob Poirier, vice president of commercial operations for Performance Health. “By rallying donations from massage therapists across the country via Facebook, she was successful in increasing the availability of food for these children and adults from one meal every other day to two meals seven days a week.”
Poirier made the comments about Cochran when presenting her with the Performance Health Humanitarian Award at this year’s Florida State Massage Therapy Association Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida, in June.
Featuring brands including Thera-Band®, Biofreeze® and Pedigenix® Foot Care System, Performance Health offers a broad portfolio of products for the therapy, rehabilitation, wellness, massage, podiatric and performance markets.
Cochran has been back to Haiti since her first trip, and will transfer there when her employer, Marriott, opens a location in Port au Prince, Haiti.
Read more about Cochran in a Performance Health press release, at www.massagemag.com/CochranPerformance.