Invitation for the Inauguration of the Thomonde Tent City

Tiburon GMA Inv and Press Release ENG


Spanish

Here are a couple shelter related stories from Haiti

"Shelter problems loom largest for Haiti: commander"

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100417/haiti_shelter_100417/20100417?hub=TopStoriesV2

The Haiti National Soccer team is looking to bring back as many shelters as possible when they return home from trainning in Texas.

http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/quake-ravaged-haitian-soccer-team-trains-in-texas--fbintl_ap-haitisoccerteam.html

"Archlog"

Was post WWII America an example of life imitating art? In order to camouflage a Lockeed Martin factory in WWII, the Army Corps of Engineers covered it in a giant tarp and painted it out of existence disguised as suburban sprawl.

Before:

and after:

and under the canvas:

(taken form http://www.archlog.com on April 30th 2010)

Quake-ravaged Haitian soccer team trains in Texas

PAUL J. WEBER, AP - Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:24 PM EDT

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas (AP) -- After the Haitian national soccer team couldn't eat another bite of chef-prepared pork or ice cream, and before going back to its cabins at a Texas resort, coach Jairo Rios asked for a favor.

Tents. As many as they could haul back to Haiti.

"I eat well here. I sleep well," forward Charles Herold Jr. said in French, speaking through a translator. "But I cannot help but think of my friends and family who don't have that. I can't get that off my mind."

Unable to practice in Port-au-Prince since the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed as many as 250,000 people, the Haitian team is staying in Texas until its May 5 game against Argentina. Players say a victory is badly needed to boost their country's spirits, even though they are heavy underdogs against one of the top teams in the world.

The Texas trip was organized by the nonprofit group San Antonio Sports, which is providing the training getaway for the devastated Haitian soccer federation. Players who've slept in the streets for the past three months have been feted with brisket and trips to shopping malls.

Players are already wrestling with the guilt of their relatively better fortunes. Forward Eliphene Cadet, 29, escaped from his house in Port-au-Prince after the roof caved on him and two children.

Leaving Haiti meant leaving his family in a tent in a field, near where his house once stood. Other players left their families in similar conditions.

"All the guys talk about it," Cadet said. "I know that they're here. There are still tremors now. That's our biggest worry."

The Haitian team has actually emerged from the earthquake luckier than some. All members of the national team survived, including those whose houses crumbled on top of them.

But 32 bodies were pulled from the rubble of the soccer federation's three-story headquarters, including coaches and top officials. Yves Jean-Bart, president of the soccer federation, was among only a few who escaped alive.

Some homeless families are still encamped at the national soccer stadium, and fields elsewhere remain blanketed by a canopy of makeshift tents and tarps. Robert Jean-Bart, the son of Haiti's soccer federation president and who lives in Boston, said there is virtually nowhere in the country to play soccer.

Jean-Bart said it was only last weekend that families began moving off the playing field in the stadium. He said the federation is trying to schedule a game in Port-au-Prince as early as August, but it will depend on how quickly the turf can be repaired.

Even before the quake, Haiti did not qualify for the World Cup. The international soccer federation FIFA ranks Haiti No. 91 in the world -- behind Iceland but above Gambia -- and the country's national team has not played an official game in nearly a year.

But players said facing Argentina -- ranked No. 9 -- will be as important to Haiti as a World Cup match.

"In Haiti, people say ask when we're going to play Argentina. People think you're going to do something good for the country," said defender Peter Germain. "If we win against Argentina, the people are finally going to be happy. We can do something positive for this country."

Nerves from the earthquake remain raw. On the bumpy flight last week to San Antonio, a bout of turbulence had Haitian players pressing their fingernails into the armrests.

"Even when the plane rumbles, it make them nervous," said Jean Roland Dartiguenave, an assistant coach whose cell phone store in Haiti was destroyed. "It reminds them of the tremors."

Shelter problems loom largest for Haiti: commander

CTV.ca News Staff

Date: Sat. Apr. 17 2010 4:33 PM ET

The commander of a Canadian military destroyer that was dispatched to Haiti in the wake of the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake says a shortage of livable homes is the biggest hurdle facing Haitians desperate to overcome the disaster.

Sailors aboard HMCS Athabaskan returned to Canada in March, after providing medical care and water, and rebuilding orphanages. They were based in the town of Leogane. About 90 per cent of the homes and businesses there were destroyed by the quake.

"Shelter now for the remainder of the population is going to be one of the key issues, I think, so they can start helping themselves," Peter Crain, the ship's commander, told CTV News Channel on Saturday. "They're into the rainy season now."

HMCS Athabaskan, one of two Canadian military vessels dispatched to Haiti, arrived in the devastated country seven days after the magnitude-7.0 tremor that killed about 200,000 people.

Its crew was tasked with providing light engineering help, humanitarian aid and medical assistance.

"The first thing I noticed was the absolute devastation. The area we were working in was very close to the epicentre, and I was seeing 90 per cent of the homes and businesses were destroyed there," Crain recalled.

The second thing he noticed was a young girl who had been injured.

"She was going to have her hand removed because it was crushed in the earthquake," Crain said. "And she stood there, not a tear in her eye."

"That really epitomized the Haitian people that I saw there. How strong, how resilient they were in the face of this disaster."

After the quake, an unprecedented effort began to load supplies and prepare the crews of HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax in just a few days.

The 225 crew members on HMCS Halifax, which returned home on March 2 after a six week deployment, focused on the town of Jacmel. HMCS Athabaskan and its crew of 240 returned to Canada on March 17.

"We were sort of the fire department," Crain said. "We arrived and we helped get the country back on its feet" after municipal and federal governments there, and some of the large NGOs, were hobbled by the disaster.

"We were in an area that didn't have a lot of help after the earthquake -- and they needed us."

GMA's Relief Shelters

These are shelters that we are currently building with our partner Tiburon in their facility in Dominican Republic.

We are currently setting up a model city inside Haiti to show case these shelters. Together with our partners inside and outside of Haiti we have secured warehouses and logistics hubs that will allow us to employ Haitians throughout the supply chain and have them fully trained on installation and maintenance of the shelters.

We're creating a sustainable community with public spaces that will allow residents to express their own individuality and culture.

GMA at NDIA MI Event

A GMA ULCANS was used as part of the Canadian exhibit at a show hosted by the Michigan Chapter of the US National Defense Industries Association held in Warren, Michigan.

Rain begins to hit Haiti

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8541361.stm

GMA is working with Dominican Red Cross, World Vision, American Friends Committee, Adra to procure hospital shelters, tents, bags, water bladders.

GMA in Haiti

GMA has partnered with a Dominican Supplier to produce relief shelters, bags for blankets, food and water, water bladders, tarps and aerial delivery systems. We will be driving as much as possible over the border into Haiti as we produce it!!!!!

More to update as the team responds to this tragedy.......

Thoughts on Innovation:

"Innovation is the source of a country's "structural dynamism" and is the root of just about everything good, like growth, employment and prosperity". - Edmund S. Phelps, Economics professor and Nobel laureate

Entrepreneurial innovation was described by Joseph Schumpeter as "perennial gale of creative destruction, forcing existing companies to adapt or just fail"

Aketon Solo Product Shots

Happy Thanksgiving!

From everyone at GMA

GMA Attends the Soldier Equipment Expo

GMA launched Aketon Solo at the Soldier Equipment and Technology Expo in Fayetteville, NC November 17th and 18th.

Take a look at our booth and Aketon Solo

Aketon Solo Updates

GMA Officially Launches Aketon Solo Today! Visit our website for more information and to place your Pre-Order.

Glenn and Nicole in Alliance Newsletter

Glenn and Nicole pictured in the October edition of the Canadian Force's Alliance newsletter on their "ExecuTrek" at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa. Check out the entire newsletter for more info. on the Canadian Force's reservists http://www.cflc.forces.gc.ca/new-sp/all/doc/2009-10-eng.pdf.

More GMA Stories...

"We used to put Nicole in an empty material box, fill it with pizza bags and put it on the vibrating sewing machine table to get her to go to sleep at work" - Rita Thiessen

GMA Stories...

"I was one of the 1st people working on the winter fronts just off of Kennedy Road in brampton. I was one of the first sewers. My other daughter Dolorous was polishing the product as it went out the door. One day we were supposed to have a company BBQ and all I see is Lillian (Glenn's mother) patting this pig ,giggling and running around. I couldn't believe she was playing with dinner!" - Rita Thiessen (Glenn's mother in law)

GMA is awarded Army's 2009 Top Michigan Small Business Contractor!
See the links here:
http://www.edascc.com/
www.facebook.com

Opening of Canadian War Museum Camouflage Exhibit June 4, 2009

It is with great pleasure that I inform you that GMA is a Supporting Sponsor of the Canadian War Museum’s upcoming Camouflage exhibit. I am very excited that GMA has partnered with such a prestigious partner as the War Museum, sponsoring this exhibit is a great opportunity to get the GMA name out there. The exhibit will be seen by thousands of people as it runs from June until the end of the year, all of which will see the GMA logo proudly displayed as they enter.

Camouflage will offer Museum visitors a fascinating look at the various aspects of camouflage, from its early roots in achieving the most basic levels of Warfield deception to its impact on popular culture. Camouflage was immensely popular and a critical success at its premier showing in the United Kingdom’s Imperial War Museum in London last summer. Camouflage will be showing at the Canadian War Museum for six months, from June 2009 to January 2010.

MP Claude Bachand and Guelph Conservative Candidate Gloria Kovach visit GMA, Summer 2009

The Early Days....

“In the early days when we all wore many hats Glenn , Phil, and I were working to win business from Bombardier. We secured a proto type order from Bombardier for a tarpaulin for the 2 1/2 ton truck. Money was tight, so even the $1600.00 dollars that was on our receivables list and due in 30 days looked appealing to chase down. Then we could eat the next week. When Glenn and I sat down and discussed it,we concluded that we should let it age as much as possible and we could use this to negotiate better terms on future requirements. So it sat for a few months and we did not chase them for the overdue receivable. Subsequently they gave us another order , which we fabricated and Bombardier required the parts themselves so they could ship completed trucks to the government and get them on their own receivables list.

We also knew that Bombardier had been given a large advance from the Government to kick start the whole project . I think it was $350 million .

Glenn had built a good relationship with the buyer whose name was Luc Goyette, and we did not want to disturb that over money issues. So I played the bad guy and had to put Bombardier on credit hold because the first invoice was long overdue, and I wanted to know if this was going to happen on future large releases.What could they do for us because I was not allowing the shipment to be sent.

Glenn re-negotiated the terms with Mr. Goyette to give them 2% Net 10 days and everyone was happy and we were on the map.

One of our early business lessons on how to use "The Good Guy Bad Guy" approach.” – Al Richard

“One of the things Maurice ("M" from "GMA") and I go back to is when the Company 1st started and Glenn was designing the pizza bags he used our microwave oven in our house in Brampton to test the different liners, proving how small he started out and just used his own initiative." - Lillian Verkindt

GMA Stories.....

"I remember when I had been working for GMA Cover Corp. for only a couple of years or so, I was asked by the company owner if I would like to gain more product and industry knowledge by attending the AUSA show in Washington D.C. It was autumn in 1994 (and a very different world then) and I was assisting the Sales and Marketing efforts at that time in trying to grow GMA's name and reputation.

On the first morning of the show, I had the unique opportunity of meeting both of the highest ranking Generals in the armies of the Peoples Republic of China, and Russia (then known as the Commonwealth of Independent States). Both groups had come through within an hour of each other. Each delegation brought their own interpreters along to translate their questions into English. Both Generals asked basic but intelligent questions about GMA's products. We answered these questions to the best of our abilities, and they seemed politely pleased with our responses.

After they left, I was thinking that it was amazing how dramatically the world had changed (in a good way) up to that point. Having grown up and lived through "The Cold War", it was unthinkable that even twenty years earlier that two military Generals from two of the world's super powers would be permitted to openly view all of the defense hardware that the United States armed forces would use around the world. Though GMA Cover Corp.'s contribution to that show was modest at that time, it would have been interesting to have known what thoughts would have been going through the two General's minds as they walked away from our booth." – Steve Garland

Website

GMA's website is under construction as we are getting ready to unveil our new identity. www.gmacover.com. Products can still be seen online as well as our new generation Aketon line brochures.