Safety & Maintenance Tips – Page 2

MAX Team Gathers for Day of Service

MAX Insurance’s team came together for a Day of Service on October 7. We closed our offices for the day and enjoyed giving our time to Drumm Farm Center for Children, a local organization in MAX’s home office area of Kansas City. Drumm Farm’s vision is helping children in foster care, homeless young adults and those aging out of foster care build successful lives by providing programs and services that support forever family environments, emotional and physical well-being, education opportunities and personal growth. The MAX team spread out and did a variety of projects benefiting the farm:

Weeded garden beds – asparagus, strawberries, peppers and eggplants
Prepped and planted garlic beds
Painted fences and trash bins
Cleared brush along fence lines
Power-washed entrance fencing
Chopped, split and bundled wood
Worked the beverage tents at their golf tournament fundraiser

In addition to giving our time, our Mutual Aid Ministries program gave a donation to Drumm Farm. Thanks to our members and agents for their patience while we closed the office for the day. As you can see from the photos, we had a great time on our Day of Service!

Lastly, we want to give a shout-out to GoEx Apparel in Kansas City where we ordered our t-shirts. GoEx is a part of the Global Orphan Project which manages CarePortal, a platform our Mutual Aid Ministries program has enjoyed participating in this year.

Copeland Insurance Agency and MAX Insurance® provide grants to Marshall County Habitat for Humanity

Copeland Insurance Agency of Marysville, Kansas is proud to support Marshall County Habitat for Humanity and this year they are excited to partner with MAX Insurance® in giving grants totaling $1,100. The grants will be used to help build a handicap-designed home for a family of four.

When Julie Weeks, agent for Copeland Insurance Agency, learned about the MAX Agent Community Grant Program, she applied for Marshall County Habitat for Humanity to be a recipient of a $100 donation. Julie chose this organization because Habitat helped her get in the house she lives in now and can attest to the important work Habitat does in her community. Little did Julie know that Derek Jones, MAX Regional Sales Manager, added a zero to the check and surprised her and Marshall County Habitat for Humanity with a new check for $1,000.

Copeland Insurance Agency is an independent insurance agency representing MAX Insurance® in Marysville and surrounding areas. MAX Insurance®, based in Overland Park, KS, is a unique fair, faithful and socially responsible insurance enterprise. Founded on religious principles, the company’s mission is to restore wholeness to communities and individuals in need. It lives out its mission through a variety of quality, fairly-priced insurance products, outstanding personalized customer service and its unique Mutual Aid Ministries program.

MAX Agency Partner:

Julie Weeks
Copeland Insurance Agency
406 Broadway
Marysville, KS 66508

julie@copleandins.com
785-619-6220
www.copelandins.com

Photo: Derek Jones, MAX Regional Sales Manager; Julie Weeks, Agent of Copeland Insurance Agency; Charlie Friedrichs, President of Marshall County Habitat for Humanity

National Window Safety Week

Did you know the first full week of April is National Window Safety Week? The Window Safety Task Force in partnership with the National Safety Council created National Window Safety Week. Why April? It is no coincidence as spring weather arrives, people open their windows to let that fresh air in their homes. Thus, the risk of window falls or injuries for children may increase. In addition, National Window Safety Week is a good reminder of how windows may be used in a family’s fire escape plan.

These tips provided by the Window Safety Task Force and National Safety Council encourage parents and caregivers to observe window safety not just during the first week of April, but throughout the year:

When young children are around, keep windows closed and locked.
When opening a window for ventilation, use those located out of a child’s reach.
Avoid placing furniture near windows to prevent young children from climbing and gaining access to an open window.
Don’t allow children to jump on beds or other furniture to help reduce potential falls.
Don’t rely on insect screens to prevent a window fall. Insect screens are designed to keep bugs out, not to keep children in the home.
Supervise children to keep child’s play away from windows, balconies or patio doors.
Install ASTM F2090 compliant devices designed to limit how far a window will open or window guards (with quick-release mechanisms in case of fire or other emergency) to help prevent a fall.
Teach your child how to safely use a window to escape during an emergency, such as a fire.

More window safety tips can be found at www.nsc.org/windowsafetytaskforce, including an activity book for children. Have a safe spring!

MutualAid Exchange (MAX) Names Lisa Bage as New CEO

Overland Park, Kansas – January 19, 2021 - MutualAid eXchange (MAX) has announced that Dr. Lisa Bage, currently Chief Operating Officer at MAX, will become the CEO and President effective February 15th of this year. Current President and CEO David M. Wine will be retiring following twenty years in that position. Wine will continue to serve as an advisor to MAX management and the MAX board of directors.

Dr. Bage has been Chief Operating Officer of MAX since 2015. Prior to MAX, Lisa’s 30 years in the insurance industry includes roles at various companies including Kemper and Progressive, in positions overseeing pricing, product development, sales, and marketing. She earned her Masters of Business Administration from Case Western Reserve University and her Doctorate in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Wine stated, “It has been a wonderful experience to work closely with Lisa the past five years in her role as COO. I have grown to have a deep appreciation for her broad skill sets that make her an ideal fit for the CEO position”. He attributes MAX’s strong growth and development the past few years to Lisa’s leadership that has led to a large expansion of MAX’s distribution system, and, at the same time, strengthened the special mission and values that embody MAX.

Chairman of the Board, Steve Garboden, expressed his thanks to Mr. Wine for his leadership and commitment in shaping MAX from its formation in 2001 and an insurance career spanning over forty-five years. Wine led the formation of the MutualAid eXchange (MAX) merging eleven different companies and cultures into a new enterprise. Garboden noted with deep affirmation, the skills and sensitivity required to build and lead MAX during its first two decades.

Garboden also expressed the Board’s appreciation for the great foundation that has been laid in MAX’s first twenty years, and his confidence that Lisa’s leadership will enable MAX to build on that foundation. He stated, “The Board’s appointment of Dr. Bage is indicative of our strong endorsement and enthusiasm for her leadership, values, and insurance expertise”.

“Our team has an outstanding reputation for providing superior, personal service to our members, agents, and partners,” Bage said. “I am excited about the opportunities ahead of us to create and sustain wholeness for even more individuals and communities.”

MAX Insurance®, based in Overland Park, KS, is a unique fair, faithful and socially responsible insurance enterprise. The company’s mission is to restore wholeness to communities and individuals in need. It lives out its mission through a variety of high quality insurance products, outstanding personalized customer service, and its unique Mutual Aid Ministries program.

To learn more about MAX, visit www.maxinsurance.com.

MAX Mindfulness: Those Darn ANTS!

By Dave Wine, President & CEO

A presenter on a recent webinar used the phrase “automatic negative thoughts” or ANTS for short, calling them the “ants” in our lives. I liked that phrase and it reminded me again of all the times it is so easy to “go there” throughout the day. Which is why staying mindful and giving conscious attention to our thoughts is so important.

How many times have you found yourself ‘less than happy’ throughout the day. Maybe you are stressed, your emotions become wound tight, there is sense of gloom and doom, certainly you might be feeling a long way from joy or enthusiasm. More than likely you have been attacked by the ants, those automatic negative thoughts. They not only are individual thoughts, they become patterns that shape and mold us daily but too easily add up to defining life for us. More often than not, it is the accumulation of a lot of little negative ants that create our moments and moods more than any one big thing.

What are some of our automatic negative thoughts? For each of us they are probably unique given our perceptions and experiences in life. But most of us automatically have ants related to sickness, finances, politics, religion, work, weather, and family. Our kids might do or say something that triggers an emotion and we go to “when will they ever grow up?” Or it might be your spouse that does that for you. You might be innocently watching TV and a political ad comes on and suddenly the joy seeps right out of you. Or every time you hear the word, Covid, ants start moving around in your mind. Weather is another key ant. If things are not the way we want them to be, our brains are hardwired to try and improve things. But we can’t change the weather (and most things), so the ants begin to crawl around in our minds disrupting our peace.

The key thing about ants is the word “automatic”. Our minds go there so fast we can’t even stop them! It is an automatic response we have built up to those things that disempower, frighten, or upset us, especially in our past. That’s why it is important to stop frequently throughout the day and do a check how we are feeling. Are you tight and constrained? Are you stressed? Are you depressed or feeling out of sorts? Has joy left? It could be all the ants moving around doing their thing in your mind.

The good news is that, just like you buy insecticides to deal with ants, we also have the power to deal with those ants in our minds. It is called paying attention, mindfulness, pregnant pauses – all those words and phrases you are probably tired of hearing about from me. But just taking those breaks to observe, feel, and monitor can make all the difference in how many ants you have crawling around uninvited that are bit by bit eating away at your joy. The ants may attack us before we know what is happening, but when they do we have the power to recognize what has been happening and we can change our minds and refocus our attention away from those ants.

Do away with the ANTS. Instead, intentionally adopt PETS (Positive Energetic Thoughts). They love you back and have your back!

David Wine

David is the President and CEO of the MAX enterprise, having served in that capacity since its formation in 2001. He has forty plus years of leadership experience in the business and faith-based worlds, being an ordained minister, having been elected to the highest position in his denomination, and receiving numerous awards and recognition for his leadership in the insurance industry. He currently serves on numerous boards in the church and insurance sectors. His hobbies include hiking, biking, skiing and snowshoeing as well as being an avid reader. David and his wife, Sharon, have three daughters, a son, and six grandchildren.