The GSE Podcast
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Episode 35 - "Grounded in Hope": Fortbrand & Fast Unite for Breast Cancer Awareness
Fortbrand and Fast Global Solutions partner to auction a special "Grounded in Hope" pink bag cart at the GSE Expo, with all proceeds benefiting the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The custom Bravo Series bag cart features white paint with distinctive pink curtains and will be displayed at Fort Brand's booth #2012, where attendees can place bids through a QR code or make direct donations.
• Auction runs September 8-17, with the winner announced at the Women of GSE event
• The National Breast Cancer Foundation provides direct support services for patients including mammograms and navigation services
• The bag cart features "Grounded in Hope" branding visible from both ground level and air
• Starting bid is $1,500 with options for direct donations for those not bidding
• Winner will participate in a collaborative marketing campaign during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October
Visit Fort Brand at booth #2012 or Fast Global Solutions at booth #7019 during the GSE Expo in Las Vegas to learn more about the initiative and the equipment.
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This episode of the GSE podcast is brought to you by Fort Brand, not your everyday GSE provider. We go beyond belt loaders and bag tractors, offering tow barless pushbacks, de-icers and airport maintenance equipment, all available on demand across North America and the UK. Whether you need electric units to support your ESG goals or traditional equipment for today's ramp, fort Brand delivers flexible leasing with the option of full-service maintenance to keep your fleet at peak performance. When you partner with Fort Brand, you get more than equipment. You get expertise, reliability and a commitment to keeping your operation running smoothly. Visit fortbrandcom to learn more. This is Brad Compton, this is Luke Brown, this is Jeff Barrett, this is Tessa Farson, and you're listening to the GSE Podcast. All right, well, welcome to another edition of the GSE Podcast. I'm Matt Weitzel and I'm here with Nicole Romeo and Angie Betterman. Nicole is from Fort Brand Services and Angie Betterman is from Fast Global Solutions. So Nicole is my brand new colleague, so we're going to start with her. How are you doing, nicole?
Nicole Romeo:Doing great, matt. Thank you, I'm glad to have you on our team.
Matt Weitzel:Thank you so much. It's been an awesome experience so far and we have this really incredible thing that we're going to talk about today. That's the reason we're having this special podcast. But, nicole, why don't you dive into what you do at Fort Brand?
Nicole Romeo:Sure. Fort Brand has been in business since 1983, selling, renting, leasing and maintaining ground support equipment and airfield maintenance equipment, and I joined Fort Brand in 2019 to help establish more leases in the GSE space, and so I've been a director of sales since I started and love what I do and love our industry. So happy to be a part of Fort Brand.
Matt Weitzel:Yeah, everybody knows Nicole, and Nicole and I just missed each other at XSEED because that's who she was with beforehand. We just missed each other by a couple months or whatever, but now we're all part of one team and it's awesome. Angie, you're with Fast Global Solutions. Tell us a little bit about Fast.
Angie Betterman:Fast is a GSD manufacturer. We've been in business since 1979. We started out as Watkins Aircraft Support Products, or WAT, rebranded to Fast Global Solutions in 2015. I've been with the company for 10 years and I'm their national account manager.
Matt Weitzel:Nice, okay, awesome. Well, thank you all so much for joining me today. We have a special topic that we're going to cover. So, nicole, do you want to kind of kick it off and kind of tell us why we're here today?
Nicole Romeo:Sure, so Fortbred. We like to give back to charities, and this year we decided to focus on breast cancer and just providing a charity for breast cancer. So every year, about there's about three hundred and seventy six thousand new cases of breast cancer, and that statistic keeps climbing. And so, with Breast Cancer Awareness Month right around the corner, we wanted to be able to provide support to the patients with a bag cart charity and a fundraiser.
Matt Weitzel:Yeah, so we're going to. So we've kind of partnered with with FAST, and Fort Brand is going to purchase a bag cart from FAST and FAST has done some pretty cool things with the bag cart and I'll let Angie kind of explain that. But we are going to have that bag cart inside of our booth at the GSE Expo and we are booth 2012. And you can come by and see it and then hopefully win it, because we're going to have a silent auction. But let's hand it over to Angie to kind of explain a little bit about this bag cart.
Angie Betterman:So this bag cart is our new Bravo Series bag cart. It is. It's going to have pink curtains. It's white with pink curtains and then it's going to say grounded in hope, just fighting for breast cancer awareness. So we thought it'd just be a cool idea to partner up with you guys. You asked us if we would to build this Bay Carp. It's been such a fun project to work on and just collaborate with you guys and I'm excited for everyone to see it. I can't wait till it gets on the tarmac at this fun customer whoever wins this with the highest bid to get this Bay Carp. But it'll be fun just to see it out there on the tarmac with the grounded in hope on the top and then grounded in hope on both sides of the bag cart with the pink curtains. I think it's. You know everyone's going to be able to see it from flying into the airports and everything like that, so super excited to have this on the tarmac.
Matt Weitzel:Yeah, so we have the Grounded in Hope logo that we created for this and we're going to have it on the side and then on top as well. So, yeah, like you said, customers flying in they'll be able to see it. It's going to have those pink curtains on it and we're going to have it in our booth so everybody can come by and check it out. And then we're going to have a QR code that people can go scan that with their phone and go in and bid on this thing and see if they can win it for their company. The starting bid is currently at $1,500.
Matt Weitzel:And obviously this bag card is worth a lot more than that and plus, it's a great way of showing your customers that that you're helping out the National Breast Cancer Foundation, which is which is, at the end of the day, the reason we're doing this whole thing is for the, for that we get from the silent auction will go to the, the, the national breast cancer foundation, and then we'll have also have like a separate QR code, um, at the booth that you can just go ahead and scan. And then, if you want to donate five, 10, 15, however many dollars you want to, let's say that you don't necessarily need the bag card or want the bag cart. You can still donate to the cause, so we'll have a separate link for that as well. So so that'd be really cool for everybody to see, I think, and it's really going to stand out at the booth, which is which is super cool. So what else do we want to? What else do we want to cover here, angie? What do you think?
Angie Betterman:Well, so the auction is going to start before the show so we're going to start it September 8th through September 17th.
Angie Betterman:On the 17th it closes at midnight. The winner is going to be announced at the Women of GSE event, which is September 17th at 1145. We will know who the winner is at the GSE Expo. So that's exciting. You know, if people want to know more about the Bravo bag cart, fast booth number is 7019. And there will be stuff you know in your guys's booth that will say where we are. But if they want more information about the bag cart or if they're looking to purchase more bag carts, they can always stop by our booth and talk to us about it.
Matt Weitzel:Yeah, that's exactly right. I'm so glad you mentioned all that. So we are definitely going to put stuff up on LinkedIn so that way people can go ahead and start thinking about those, those purchase orders, right, and how much they're going to be able to bid on this bag cart. So, yeah, it's gonna be super cool. So let's kind of go into the expo really quickly.
Nicole Romeo:Nicole, what are you looking forward to the most at this, this year's 2025 GSE Expo? Just excited to be able to give back through our charity and just see you know all the common people that we work with throughout the year and have everybody in one room. It's always such a great show and it feels like you know our friends are all together. So that's what I'm really excited about for this year at the GSE show.
Matt Weitzel:I agree it's. We just have such a great community, the GSE community, and can't wait, like you said, see all my friends and stuff like that. So yeah, it's always. It's always really exciting going to Las Vegas and seeing everybody. Angie, what about you?
Angie Betterman:Probably the same thing. I'm really excited for people to see this bag cart and for it to be at your guys' booth and just showcasing it and seeing how much money we can raise for breast cancer awareness. I think that is huge. Like Nicole said, seeing all the friends and I feel like some of you guys are family within the GSE community because there's a lot of longstanding relationships with the customers that are just great to have to any new customers that are coming that haven't been there.
Nicole Romeo:Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, exactly yeah, women who are experiencing breast cancer, such, as you know, mammograms and patient navigation services, which really takes care of some gaps that are in our healthcare system. So it's not just for research, it truly is. This charity truly helps women in their fight and not just trying to come up with a cure. It just takes care of the patients. So that's really exciting for us to be able to, you know, give back in a different way.
Matt Weitzel:Yeah, that's an amazing charity.
Nicole Romeo:And to really make an impact.
Matt Weitzel:Yeah, no for sure. Yes, I agree, that's. It's a, it's a great charity and we want everybody to come by the booth, see the see the cart and put bids in on it. And if you and if you can't put a bid, you know, donate some money. And you know, all support this great cause. So we're gonna be doing plenty of online activity. Everybody should be able to see it on LinkedIn. There, should you know, there's gonna be QR codes in the booth, all that kind of stuff. But if you listen to this podcast and you want to share it with people, please go ahead and share this podcast with others in the industry so that way, they make sure they're aware that this is happening and, like I said, it's gonna be a really cool opportunity for these customers to really support a cause and then show their customers that they're supporting a cause as well.
Nicole Romeo:Right, and also, the winner of the bag cart will not only get to be announced at the Women of GSC meeting at the end of the expo, but we're also going to do a press release in the field where we can, you know, ship the bag cart to the customer site and then have a collaborative marketing campaign in October, which is appropriate since it is breast cancer.
Matt Weitzel:Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, you're right.
Nicole Romeo:So it's a really great charity. It's going to be fun.
Matt Weitzel:You're going to get put up on the for-brand LinkedIn. You're probably going to make it on the fast global solutions LinkedIn. You're going to be LinkedIn famous folks. If you win this thing and I don't know, maybe I could be convinced to get a picture with them. You know, with the bag cart, that's an extra incentive. People are going to want that, so and I'll sign something if they make me. But yeah, so definitely. You know, come out to the booth, go to Fast Global, learn more about you know how great this bag cart is, because not only are you supporting a great cause, you're getting a great bag cart right.
Angie Betterman:Yeah, exactly.
Matt Weitzel:So you're getting a great bag cart right? Yeah, exactly. So I mean it's a two for one. It's great so well, thank you all so much. Is there anything?
Nicole Romeo:else that I've missed anything. Nicole or Angie, I think we've covered it all. If anybody has questions, they can reach out to any one of us, so then we can help point in the right direction.
Matt Weitzel:No, that's a great point. Yes, please, If you have any questions about this or how you can be better involved, or any general questions, please reach out to me or Angie or Nicole. If you don't have our emails, connect with us on LinkedIn. We will definitely help you so well. Thank you all so much for joining me today. I know it's been a short episode, but I'm so glad we were able to get out this information.
Angie Betterman:Thank you. Yeah, we're excited to see you at the GSE show everybody, and can't wait till a couple weeks.
Matt Weitzel:Awesome, there you go. See you in Vegas everybody. Thank you.
Nicole Romeo:See you.
Matt Weitzel:Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the GSE podcast. We hope you found it informative and engaging. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with your colleagues and peers in the ground support equipment community. Your support is invaluable to us. We'd appreciate it if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast. Your feedback not only encourages us, but also helps expand our reach within the GSE community. Keep an eye out for more episodes as we continue to explore the dynamic world of ground operations, bringing you the latest trends, insights and stories from the industry. Thank you for listening to the GSE Podcast. Until we meet again, stay grounded and keep pushing forward.
