Aberdeen-based Contractors Donate Vacation Days for Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts

Vacation days are meant for relaxation, unless they help put people to work for a noble cause in the wake of a natural disaster.

Aberdeen-based contractors Symbolic Systems, along with the company’s offices in New Jersey and Texas donated the momentary balance of unused vacation days to the New Jersey Relief Fund.

The $11,000 raised will go toward efforts to rebuild the Jersey Shore following the thrashing the Garden State endured through Hurricane Sandy.

"We are a fairly small company with a tight-knit workforce,” Robert Wheeler, the company’s chief operating officer, said. “Our employees here in Maryland saw some of their colleagues up north lose power for weeks at their own homes but still manage to get the job done.

“If they can set an example like that, we thought that giving back vacation days to help the storm victims would be the least we could do.," he continued.

A group of Symbolic’s staff was relocated to Aberdeen from New Jersey as part of the Base Realignment and Closure initiative.

“Coming from New Jersey we still have a lot of friends and family and even a home there,” Harris Siegel, a Symbolic Systems project leader, said. “Even when we came down to Maryland with BRAC move, we still have deep ties there. … It just felt like the right thing to do.”

The company’s Tinton, NJ, was closed for weeks due to flooding, scattering employees to continue working from remote locations, according to a release.

“We were glad to contribute in this small way to the recovery of a place that is very special to many of us," Wheeler said. 

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• PHOTOS: Hurricane Sandy in Aberdeen

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