Mary Bergjans
Claims & Risk Services, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company

Pictured from left: Howard Oldham, Recovery and Salvage Supervisor, Paul Stachura, head of Claims & Risks Services, Laura Morrison, and Kevin DeGarmo, Claims Director

Recently, 160 Claims & Risk Services leaders met in St. Louis for their "2011 Build Grow Win" kick-off leadership meeting. Settled in and excited about what the meeting would bring, little did the attendees know that dinner on the first evening would include a heartfelt check presentation to the widow of a fallen St. Louis firefighter.

As Paul Stachura, head of Claims & Risk Services, spoke of our company purpose, he spoke vividly of our promise: "We started with a promise. We have a promise to keep."

A promise to our customers, our policyholders, our company, and to each other. He also emphasized our promise to our community. He described our Heritage and Bucket Brigade efforts and proudly cited we have awarded over $27 million dollars since the Heritage Program began in 2004.

Paul then introduced the fateful story of a dedicated St. Louis City firefighter who lost his life while meeting his promise to protect his community. On May 3, 2002, Robert Morrison and another firefighter died while battling a fire inside a building. They entered the building to ensure a third firefighter safely exited. Rob was 38 years old and had been with the department for 11 years. He left behind his wife, Laura Morrison, and two children, 11-year-old Matthew and 8-year-old Megan.

An investigation into the deaths showed that Rob died from smoke inhalation because his equipment failed.

Paul then invited Laura up to the front of the room and introduced her to the crowd. She tearfully accepted a check for $2,566. Laura is a strong advocate for the importance of equipment safety, working closely with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), and she accepted the donation on behalf of the NFFF.

Laura has a long family history of firefighters - her father, Chief John Brewer, had been with the department for 25 years before retiring. Laura's brother, Captain John Brewer, and her uncle, Chief Gerald Diefenbach, were also with the department at the time of Rob's death.

It gave us great pleasure, on behalf of all Fireman's Fund employees, to present Laura with the contribution. As you might imagine, there was not a dry eye in the room...many feeling very proud to be associated with a company that maintains a promise to the community.

It's also important to note that this donation was the idea spurred by one of our St. Louis staff members. Pam Lutes, salvage coordinator of our Claims Recovery Unit, recommended to her manager that we reinstitute our claims salvage sale and provide the proceeds to a recipient of our Heritage Program. As we talk about licensing our employees to recommend solutions to increase efficiencies and benefit our customers and policyholders, this was a perfect example of where Pam was licensed and acted like a true business owner.