March 2014 Member of the Month - Avalon Risk Management!
Avalon Risk Management not only works hard, but plays hard. As an independent, privately held insurance broker, Avalon adheres to core values that give the company strength to continue to grow and lead the industry. With Avalon's core values of integrity, teamwork, communication, personal growth, knowledge, family and community, Avalon has won Best Places to Work in Insurance and in Illinois for three consecutive years.
Through family and community, Avalon's Compassion Team (A.C.T.) works diligently to share the strengths found within our company with the surrounding community by volunteering, donating, and fundraising. Throughout the year, you can find an Avalon team running a 5k to raise awareness for Down Syndrome, volunteering to repair, clean and build facilities at the Sunrise Lake Outdoor Education Center, and fundraising to support the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Operation Support Our Troops- America, and St. Baldricks. These are amongst many reasons that Avalon is an awesome company. From days off for your birthday and work anniversaries to office massages, Avalon employees are valued for the hard work they do.
Avalon is a company that knows how to work hard but we also play hard, and nothing proves that more than Halloween and Avalon's Annual Management Meetings where our company takes celebrating (and competition!) to another level. It's during these two days that you'll find our President walking around in full superhero gear, the marketing department as Ghouls and Ghosts serving at their Dead Dive, and the accounting department making you feel as if you've stepped onto the 1960's Gilligan's Island T.V. set.
Every October, Avalon's departments and regions compete for the best theme, the best cubicle and the best costume. Each year, competition has become increasingly challenging with more unique, creative and "out of this world" themes. On a typical Avalon Halloween, you could find yourself travelling through Dr. Seuss' creative world with the Cat in the Hat, scaring up "Boo's" with the monsters of Monster's Inc., duck hunting in the Louisiana marshes with the Duck Dynasty clan, lounging in paradise on the set of Gilligan's Island, exploring the jungles of M*A*S*H, battling Darth Vader amongst the stars, and to top it all off, jazzing through the streets of Chicago with both of the Blues Brothers. And all of this just sums up this year's celebrations.
On Halloween, it's become tradition for other companies to visit the Avalon floor and fill most of the day with "oohs" and "aahs" as they travel from department to department. It is an extremely exciting event that unites our company with one goal: creating the best and most outrageous Halloween experience - even if it is for only one day!
Even though Halloween only lasts one day, it's not the only day you'll find Avalon walking around in costumes. During this year's Annual Management Meetings, we showed our strengths and skills with our superhero alter-egos highlighting the accomplishments and challenges that make Avalon such an amazing place to work. This year, departments proved their talents by calling on the strengths of popular super-heroes, or by creating their own! Through videos, skits, comic strips and amazingly talented dance routines, we showed how Avalon soars above the rest with the power of the past, and the force of the future!
