Hurricane Irma's Chainsaw Nun Inspires Wooden 'Phone Coasters'

MIAMI, FL — A dozen weeks may have passed since Hurricane Irma wrought havoc in Florida, but Miami's chainsaw nun is still proving to be an inspiration — first with beer — and now with a new product from Sprint that looks like a coaster for your mobile device. The $5 Phone Grips went on sale in area Sprint stores this week just in time to become one of the holiday season's hot stocking stuffers. They are made from storm-damaged trees collected around Miami and 100 percent of the proceeds go to charity.

See also 'Chainsaw Nun' Enjoys Attention But Not Necessarily Beer

The idea came from watching Sister Margaret Ann wield her chainsaw in full religious habit during the days following the powerful hurricane on Sept. 10. The principal of Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll High School became a beacon of resilience, not only in Miami, but all throughout Florida. She was honored by the Florida Panthers ice hockey team, the Miami Heat basketball team and even inspired a "surprisingly easy drinking" beer — all in the space of little more than a month. Most people now know her simply as Miami's chainsaw nun.

The folks at Sprint couldn't help but be inspired too.

"We needed to do something you see, and the perfect idea was to take the wood of the trees that had fallen, that have caused damage, that have destroyed our network, that have destroyed roofs or streets and power lines etc. — to come up with something good out of that damage," explained Claudio Hidalgo, Sprint's Florida region president in an interview with Patch. "I think it’s awesome."

Each wooden Phone Grip is stamped, "Florida Strong" rather than with a Sprint logo, which only appears on the yellow and black packaging. All of the proceeds benefit The Miami Foundation, which works with more than 1,000 different philanthropic funds.

"We contacted a company locally — the ones that were picking up all the trees," recalled Hidalgo. "We asked them, 'hey can we do something with them?' We collected a full truck with trees that we were able to do something with them. Then we started looking. Okay, so where do we take them? Who could manufacture them?"

The answer was found in the Hoosier State. The trees were transported all the way to Indianapolis, where a company called Woodchuck turned each fallen tree into hundreds of commemorative products worthy of coveted prime retail counter space during the all-important holiday season.

They are intended to elevate mobile phones and tablets while people watch videos, glance at recipes, play games or make video calls. The initial production run was for 10,000 units.

"But we want to do more," acknowledged Hidalgo as the first units hit local store shelves.

Everyone has their own memories from Hurricane Irma, but for Sprint employees, the product is also meant to be a reminder of the wireless carrier's own recovery from Hurricane Irma.

"After the hurricane ... we started the whole recovery process, recovering our network and there was a lot of people on the streets trying to clean up the street and recover the fiber optics and trying to reshape the towers etc," Hidalgo said.

"We ended up kind of pulling together an idea out of the opportunity ... out of the damage that was done by the trees," Hidalgo added. "We thought 'we’ve got to do something with this' and we got the Phone Grip."

As for Sister Margaret Ann, she doesn't know that she was the inspiration.

"Those trees were in the way. It was unsafe," she told Patch in a previous interview as to how she came to be wielding the chainsaw after Hurricane Irma left a "tangled mass of fallen trees" along the road between the high school and the convent where she lives with three other sisters. "Something needed to be done to help out and I just wanted to help."

Watch: Sister Margaret Ann In Action

Miami's Chainsaw Nun inspired Sprint's $5 Phone Grips made from storm-damaged trees collected around Miami. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to charity. Photo courtesy Sprint.