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WmRigg and Travelers lend a hand to Habitat For Humanity

December 15, 2006

On November 1, 11, and 18th, Travelers- Irving and Richardson partnered with WmRigg Agency of Dallas for the first time ever to participate in a Traveler’s sponsored Habitat build. Over thirty volunteers showed up each build day to help build, landscape, and prepare this house for Angela Aldridge and her five children. Below, the underwriter and the agent are working together to reach those hard spots on the molding of the house. Next, Irving’s Financial and Professional Services unit and Middle Market Service Center pose for a job well done after the first day’s work.

The Aldridge’s house is one of 400 already built Habitat houses in the south Dallas area. Travelers met their match starting with roofing shingles the first day. Teams of men and woman walked up ladders around the house to work at the highest point of the roof, meticulously laying black shingle over black shingle so that the Aldridge’s roof would be strong. (see picture below) By the end of the day, volunteers had nearly completed the roof and sealed the doors and windows to the house. Lance, the builder, commented about how fast travelers was at finishing tasks before deadlines and finishing them with quality work. Happy and tired employees boarded the bus to go back to their offices with soar backs and hands. Conversation was full of energy though; everyone couldn’t wait to come back again on Saturday.

The challenge didn’t stop there. On the first Saturday, volunteers painted and put on siding for the entire circumference of the house! Departments such as Financial & Professional Services met other employees from the Select and Bond units for the first time. They day in its entirety was beautiful with sun shining and faces smiling with brushes in hand enjoying their task at hand. Painting started at 8am and by noon everyone was in need of fresh air and fresh food. Jason’s deli delivered box lunches to the entire crowd of volunteers, builders, and neighborhood onlookers. After filling their tummies with roast beef and chocolate chip cookies they got back to work, ready to get those hard to reach spots.

The final Saturday build was deemed “landscapint” day. The receipent of the house and three of her children joined us in unrolling thick grass squares and stomping them into the front, side, and back yards.The manly men dug for the first few hours in order to have holes for trees in Angela’s front and back yard. They rolled the trees into their spots for a welcoming front yard that will provide shade and shelter for those hot summer days. The resourceful women got artistic with the greenery and created a lovely flower garden in front of Angela’s window. Travelers is not just great at in-synch insurance, throughout the builds the Dallas Travelers offices showered they were great at coming together in serving a purpose greater than themselves.

A few employees left with these thoughts about the experience with Habitat:

Dennis Seeman: “This was one of the most rewarding volunteer activities I have participated in. Not only did it allow me to work closely with St. Paul Travelers employees that I normally don’t work with but it also allowed me to get to know the friends of some of our employees as well as people from Wells Fargo. I commend the Wells Fargo employees who built with us as they have been participating in the construction of this house for quite some time. At the end of the day, as I climbed down off the roof for the last time and slowly walked toward the bus, I felt a great sense of accomplishment and realized that not only did I learn a bit about roofing a house, but I also learned something about teamwork, leveraging people’s talents and building camaraderie. This was my first experience with the Habitat for Humanity. I was impressed with their organization of the day’s activities, concern for our safety and efforts to make this a fun and enjoyable event. I will definitely participate in a future build.”

Ernesto Alegria: “86 miles roundtrip from Fort Worth to Dallas - $27.35 in gasoline, Pair of gloves - $3.00, Breakfast Burritos - $4.25, Travelers and Wm. Rigg Co. investing back into our community - Priceless”