Personally and professionally the end of the year is jam packed with loose ends that need to be tended. This was the case yesterday morning when my colleague asked if I would like to join her at a meeting with Alliance for Children, one of the organizations that we support through the National Life Group Foundation. I had a conference call that morning, a report that needed to be completed, and I needed to put the finishing touches on a presentation and get it reviewed, my plate was full, and I told her I couldn’t make it, that I was too busy. In my role in our Retirement Marketing department, part of my responsibility is to represent and advocate for our company Brand and our vision, mission and values. Giving back to our community and being a high-touch organization is integral to who we are. I realized that I couldn’t represent our culture if I wasn’t living it. So, I moved things around, and I made time to attend the meeting at Alliance for Children.
Once arriving at their clinical counseling center in Fort Worth, we were greeted by their team including their CEO Julie Evans, Director of Development Julia Summers, Director of Clinical Services Diana Davis, and Children’s Services Advocate April Eastman. These wonderful women shared the stories of the children and families that they serve. They spoke of the immense, unimaginable abuse and trauma endured by the children that walk through their doors. They spoke of children and families that arrived without the light of hope in their eyes, and they walked us through the variety of counseling services, interactive therapies and attentive TLC that each of their clients receive when they are with them. They then shared stories about families graduating from their programs with light, hope, and optimism restored. They spoke with warmth, compassion, and conviction, and it dawned on me that I am not strong enough to do the work that they do every day, but I am so grateful that they are there to do the work and to make my community a better place for those in need of their assistance. I was humbled, and inspired by these women and their work. And, I was excited and energized that we can provide our time as volunteers, and that our Foundation could provide funding that would help to fuel the work that they do. I was almost too busy to join my colleague on this visit, but during the course of the meeting I realized that this was in fact the essence of National Life Group’s vision, mission, and values. Ultimately we do the work that we do on a daily basis so that we can make the lives of the people that we serve better. When we make our communities better, safer, and stronger, we as a company are better able to live our vision.
This whole day was eye-opening and reaffirming for me, it reminded me that we should never be so busy that we cannot make time for things that are meaningful and important. We should remember that tasks can wait but people often cannot. It reminded me again that National Life Group is truly a special and unique company that is committed to living its vision, mission, and values and I am very fortunate to be a part of an organization like this one.
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