Notre Dame Alum's Startup Offers Vacation Homes To Medical Personnel
Pier White could have sulked, shrugged and surrendered.
White, a 1994 Notre Dame graduate, is the proprietor of a travel-related startup that had just reached the point of raising a first round of investments when COVID-19 intensified, caused a nationwide shutdown and cratered travel demand and interest. His plan was put on hold indefinitely.
But he found a way to pivot.
His startup, called Tradelasts, was initially designed to create a membership-based community of vacation home owners to offer use of their second homes in exchange for points to use toward a vacation at another member’s home.
Instead, it’s now geared toward helping those on the frontlines working in healthcare who deal with the worst side of COVID-19 on a daily basis. White wanted to find a way to thank them when the pandemic subsides. Tradelasts’ new goal is to pair medical personnel with vacation home owners to provide a free trip and stay as a gesture of gratitude for their stress-inducing, harrowing work.
“Since I don’t know how to sew and I can’t make masks, I determined a pivot to a not-for-profit would be the best way I could help,” White said in an interview with BlueandGold.com’s Lou Somogyi on the Irish Huddle podcast.
“All their stories are heart-wrenching. Some are dislocated from their families. They’re the last line of defense and seeing all this trauma. These patients are dying without their families and often are the only point of care, only solace. They’re holding iPhones and iPads up to families as they say goodbye.”
White launched South Bend-based Tradelasts out of the Notre Dame IDEA Center and has about 40 volunteer workers, 30 of whom are current Notre Dame undergraduate students who gave their summer to work for him. So far, he said about 1,000 frontline medical workers have been nominated by families, friends or themselves for post-crisis vacations done through Tradelasts.
One of them may be familiar to Notre Dame fans.
Former Irish linebacker Jarrett Grace current works in the medical field and nominated his brother, a doctor in the family’s hometown of Cincinnati. Grace himself was later nominated. Tradelasts matched Grace’s family with someone who has a vacation home in Beaver Creek, Colo.
“They’ll get a chance to recuperate, hopefully toward the end of the summer,” White said.
White said people who don’t have vacation homes can help Tradelasts’ mission as well. They can nominate friends or family who are medical personnel, spread the word about the company’s mission on social media or donate to the site’s GoFundMe page, which helps cover costs of the trip so the family going on it and homeowner don’t have to pay for it.
Additionally, White encouraged anyone who is an active member of a local Notre Dame Club to reach out to him so he can talk spread Tradelasts’ idea and mission through the clubs.
The GoFundMe link and forms to nominate, donate time in a home or volunteer can be found at Tradelasts.com.
“This can be something we can all rally around,” White said.
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