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Insurance Employees Give Mendon Seniors a Helping Hand

By Michelle Sanford Staff Reporter/Columnist · July 13, 2012

From the left: Liberty Mutual Employees Anya Robinson, Kris Levine, Denise Martineau, and Michelle Scharnagle volunteered at the Mendon Senior Center as part of their company's Serve with Liberty community service initiative.





On June 21 and 22, thousands of Liberty Mutual employees around the globe celebrated the company's 100th anniversary—not by receiving a gift or treating themselves to a day off—but instead by giving back to their communities. As a result, several members of Liberty Mutual's Boston office decided to give back to the Mendon Senior Center by helping to organize the Center's Food Pantry and serve lunch to the seniors.

The Serve with Liberty initiative was created to celebrate Liberty Mutual's Centennial Anniversary, and involved over 20,000 company employees around the world, who took part in two days of community service.

Michelle Scharnagle, who resides in Mendon, said she wanted to volunteer at the Senior Center's Food Pantry because she has always been a contributor to the program. Along to help her were Liberty Mutual colleagues Anya Robinson, Kris Levine, and Denise Martineau. The four women spent the morning reorganizing shelves and checking expiration dates of donated food. Afterward, they helped prepare food and served lunch to the seniors that day.

Food Pantry Coordinator Carol Kotros said she was thrilled with the extra hands. "We organize the Food Pantry every month. This is a huge help," she said.

Due to the enormity of organizing the worldwide project, the Serve with Liberty initiative took approximately one year to coordinate. Employees signed up to take part by picking from a list of community service needs they were interested in and which they were most accessible to. Robinson, who resides in Natick, said she chose to help out the Mendon Senior Center because "It was something I couldn't mess up too badly," she joked.

Other Liberty Mutual employees signed up to volunteer throughout the state by helping out at the Franklin Park Zoo, various Boys and Girls Clubs, and the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, among many others.

"Celebrating our company's 100th anniversary by serving in the community felt right given the history and traditions that have distinguished this company from the beginning," said Liberty Mutual Insurance President and CEO David Long in a press release. "The decision to celebrate our anniversary by serving was easy. We merely considered how much good we could achieve if Liberty Mutual employees volunteered together in the many neighborhoods and communities we call home.