St. Joe employees stuff the bus

St. Joseph, Mo. (August 7, 2015) For the second year in a row, a group of American Family employees from St. Joseph, Missouri, teamed up to collect school supplies for local area children in need.

Stuff the Bus is a United Way and Salvation Army initiative that focuses on collecting school supplies for children in poverty. Items are collected and donated as a way to increase children’s success and confidence for the upcoming school year.

"I believe that children are the most important part of a community, and it warms my heart to be able to help them," says Dana Love, support senior tech, who helped coordinate efforts for her division, Commercial-Farm/Ranch.

St. Joe employees collected items for two weeks leading up to the Stuff the Bus event, held at a Wal-Mart in St. Joseph, Aug. 7-9. In addition to Dana, Tina Graham, support senior tech, Personal Lines, and Anna Bundy, customer service representative II, Sales and Service Operations, coordinated the effort within their divisions.

"The Salvation Army representatives were beyond thankful and overwhelmed by the support the employees gave to our community," Dana says.

Last Thursday, employees sorted, boxed, and loaded the American Family donations, so they could be delivered to the event the following morning.

According to United Way of Greater St. Joseph’s Facebook page, more than 23,000 packages of school supplies were donated at last weekend’s event.