Agents for the Community
presented by
Shafer Insurance Agency • Knoxville In this series, Penn National Insurance and Insurors are recognizing some of the work our members do for their communities. During Convention, the new "Penn National Agents for the Community" Award will be presented to one of the featured agencies.
The Insuror: Why is community service such an important part of your agency?
The Insuror: What do you think it means to clients to see their insurance agent involved in their community? Shafer: We want our clients to know that we value what they value. We believe, “to whom much is given, much is required” and we live that out every day in how we treat our clients and our neighbors. Everyone benefits when we all work together to create a better community.
Shafer: Not only are we committed to our clients, we are committed to serving and strengthening our community. For more than 50 years, we have supported and been active in numerous charitable organizations that allow us to partner with our clients and our community in tangible ways. This is an integral part of our organization’s culture, and we encourage our employees to volunteer. Each year our team members volunteer an average of 850 hours.
The Insuror: What are some of the main causes/ groups you support? How and why did you get started with them? Andy Shafer presents a donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank
Shafer: United Way of Greater Knoxville has been one of our favorite community organizations almost since our agency started. Both Bo Shafer and Andy Shafer have served on the Board of Directors and as Campaign Chairs, helping to raise millions of dollars. Traci Taylor, COO, chairs an OBI Committee, and Stanton Oster, one of our client executives, serves on an OBI Committee. Our staff recently completed our company pledge campaign with 100% participation! Salvation Army is another amazing local organization that serves people in all walks of life. Andy is currently on the Board, and our team participates in the Red Kettle bell ringing every year. With the Helen Ross McNabb Center, we are honored to sponsor a dinner and “adopt” children for the holidays each year. The Second Harvest Food Bank leads our community in the fight to end hunger, and we participate in the No Empty Plates fundraiser to raise awareness of hunger issues. We are blessed to help our local senior citizens through SCHAS Senior Assistance, where we sponsor the award dinner, donate to the endowment fund, and “adopt” senior citizens at Christmas. Other local nonprofits that we partner with include the Friends of The Smokies (Evergreen Ball), YOKE Youth Ministries (annual Golf Tournament), and Young Williams Animal Center (Mardi Growl). We also donate to the YMCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Emerald Youth Foundation, the Cerebral Palsy Center, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Boys & Girls Club. Our employees held drives and fundraisers for Big Brothers Big Sisters, Family Justice Center and The Wesley House. 46
The Insuror: Do you feel this service work adds to the "staff culture" of your agency? Shafer: Absolutely! Our staff not only does their best for our clients, but they also give their best to our community. We want our team to have opportunities to expand their work in the community, and we provide paid time off for them to volunteer each year. Much like it takes many people with different talents to create a perfect team, it takes those same multi-talented people to create the best community. “Little becomes much” when we all work together and combine our talents and skills.
The Insuror: How could our industry as a whole do a better job of supporting the communities they insure? Shafer: Fortunately, many of our industry peers are already doing what we do – identifying the need and finding tangible ways to help meet that need. As an industry, we should continue to encourage one another and our teams to expand our horizons and keep looking for new community investment opportunities.
The Insuror: Thank you for giving us your time, and we appreciate the work you're doing. Shafer: Thank you, Insurors! You do great work and your efforts are essential to our industry. u The Tennessee Insuror
