'Swift to Serve'--Symetra Week of Service Volunteers Give Back at Five Bellevue Projects

Nearly 400 Bellevue-based Symetra employees mobilized around the Puget Sound region in support of local communities during the seventh-annual “Symetra Week of Service,” held June 8–12.

Wearing bright green ‘Symetra Volunteer’ T-shirts, local employees logged 1,300 hours over five days to help clear trails, landscape, stock foodbanks, make toys, tutor kids, paint, clean and organize on behalf of 24 nonprofit organization around the Eastside and in the Greater Seattle area. (See complete Puget Sound-area list of organizations here.)

Five Bellevue organizations once again drew enthusiastic Symetra volunteer crews. Collectively, 63 employees contributed 224 hours of manpower over the course of five days — cleaning and organizing at the Bellevue Family YMCA, packing mealtime boxes for kids at Bellevue LifeSpring, crafting and creating tricycle peddle straps, bean bags and fabric covers for toy shelves at Kindering, sorting donations and cleaning shelter space at The Sophia Way, and spreading bark on the dog-walking trails for the Seattle Humane Society in Bellevue.

“Symetra is recognized as a company with a strong volunteer spirit. While we’re engaged in supporting nonprofits year ‘round, the Symetra Week of Service spotlights our employees’ involvement in and commitment to the communities in which we live and work,” said Symetra CEO Tom Marra, who was among the Enfield, Connecticut office employee volunteers at Elizabeth Park in Hartford on June 9. “This annual tradition gives us a chance to connect with our colleagues, join forces to help our nonprofit partners who do so much good and make a positive impact in our communities through hands-on service.”

Symetra Week of Service began in 2009 with 130 employees in the company’s Bellevue headquarters volunteering at seven area projects. Since the program’s inception, Symetra employees have contributed more than 10,000 Week of Service hours.

To see more of Symetra’s 2015 Week of Service volunteers in action, visit Facebook at www.facebook.com/Symetra. To learn about the company’s community programs, visit www.symetra.com/community.