NYCM Stories: A Tradition of Giving

 
The holiday season is a time to rejoice with family and friends, and reflect on memories made as another year winds down. For employees at NYCM Insurance, it’s also a welcomed opportunity to show compassion and support to those in need.

Since its founding, NYCM Insurance has been the workplace of people who look out for their neighbors during times of need. The holiday season is a time when that kindness is sure to be on display, as a number of employee-spearheaded committees reconvene to give back to local children, families, nursing homes, schools, veterans programs, community organizations, and others in need.

If you are looking for inspiration to give back this holiday season, look no further than the warmhearted individuals of Team NYCM. Continue reading to learn about some of NYCM’s ongoing employee-driven holiday donations.

 

Edmeston Helping Hands

Beginning in 1999, Jodi Hawes and the NYCM Insurance Underwriting Team helped to form Helping Hands: a committee of NYCM employees at the Edmeston branch who volunteered to adopt families in need through local organizations and provide them gifts during the holiday season. More than 20 years later, the program continues to serve families in need throughout Otsego, Chenango, Herkimer, Oneida, and Madison counties. 

“We are just trying to spread a little Christmas cheer, trying to give back,” said Hawes. “Our employees are extremely gracious and then the company matches 100 percent. It’s just a testament of who NYCM is as a company; so gracious about giving back to so many different things.”

Sherburne Christmas Cares Project volunteers are pictured here wrapping gifts to donate to local schools and Catholic Charities in 2019.

In the past Helping Hands has partnered with organizations including the Otsego County Department of Social Services, Edmeston Rotary, West Winfield Rotary, Brookfield Central School, UV Central School, Chase Nursing Home, Harding Nursing Home, ICAN, Upstate Cerebral Palsy, and West Hill Terrace in Edmeston to provide support however they can to those in need.

“I grew up in a family of farmers, and my family instilled in us as kids that we need to give back to our community,” said Hawes. “You help wherever you can. But it’s not a one person show, it really is a company effort.”

Over the years, Helping Hands has served to benefit more than 250 families and more than 2,500 children. In addition to donating holiday gifts, Helping Hands expanded to also provide annual donations of winter outerwear to the Utica Rescue Mission, and hundreds of pounds of food donations to Feed Our Vets. Hawes credits the success of Helping Hands to the goodwill of all of the people who have supported it along the way.

Sherburne Christmas Cares Project

The NYCM employee-founded Sherburne Christmas Cares Project has been helping to make the holidays a little brighter since its creation in the early 1990s. First established to benefit the local Catholic Charities’ mission in aiding domestic abuse victims, the project has grown over the last 30 years to also support the Sherburne-Earlville School Christmas Drive and Unadilla Valley School’s Christmas Project.

Volunteers in the Sherburne Christmas Cares Project host themed fundraisers year-round to help raise funds that are then used to purchase holiday gifts for local students at the year’s end. Over the years the project has found unique ways to help encourage donations, including car washes, mum sales, soup days for employees, and can & bottle returns.

Sherburne Christmas Cares Project volunteers Sarah McIntosh-Posson, Kathy Wagner, and J.B. Harbison are pictured here wrapping gifts to donate to local schools and Catholic Charities in 2019.

“We are providing Christmas for 62 kids in 22 families this year. This branch is awesome!” said NYCM Fraud Supervisor and Sherburne Christmas Cares Project Leader Kathy Wagner. “Some people have adopted a child or two and have already completed their shopping, but the bulk will be done with a team of volunteers at the beginning of December. NYCM has again generously agreed to match our funds so we can provide a nice holiday for these children and their families. It really is the best time of the year.”

Orchard Park Sunshine Club

At NYCM’s Orchard Park branch, the employee-run Sunshine Club was proud to donate nine checks for $500 apiece to different charitable organizations in the Buffalo area in November 2022.

The result of multiple years of fundraising activities, the Orchard Park Sunshine Club elected this year to distribute $4,500 to the Buffalo Ronald McDonald House, Erie County SPCA, Good Shepherd Community of Faith Church/South Buffalo Community Food Table, Buffalo Boys and Girls Club, BestSelf Behavioral Health, The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo Foundation, Courage of Carly Fund, National Ovarian Cancer Coalition, and Wings - Flights of Hope.

“All of us suffer hardships in our lives, it’s a commonality that binds us all together as humans,” said NYCM Casualty Business Unit Manager and Sunshine Club member Jeff Zapp. “We do our part to give back to others as we ourselves depend on others to help us through difficult times.”

At NYCM Insurance, employees know that everyone achieves more when working together, and that by supporting the people and organizations where we live, work, and play, it is possible to strengthen the foundation of the communities we call home. To learn more about NYCM Insurance’s support for charitable organizations, follow the link below.