EMP-35

OK, EMP-35, it is time to share your summer stories and let us all know “what I did last summer.” Bob Strickland writes that he was promoted in January to executive director. This puts him as the senior executive for the North Florida office of Vista Healthplan Inc. Vista has offices in Tallahassee, Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood and Coral Gables. Bob wishes all of EMP-35 a warm and sunny winter.

Mike Bock recently went to El Salvador as part of his family-based business. Mike got his hair cut at a local barbershop for $2 by an 84-year-old barber. In other news, Mike and his lovely wife, Lisa, have recently upgraded their Web site to provide online ordering just in time for the upcoming holiday season. There is a little movie at the beginning, which is interesting. Their Web site is www.blanchardcourtbags.com.

Lastly, they are starting a church program where they meet with the mission or charity group within an individual church to present their business and their goals. They partner with the church to sell bags through trunk shows in parishioners’ homes, do an open house activity in the church after Mass and weekend services or do just plain online sales. Then they donate 20 percent of the overall sales to the educational fund in El Salvador in the name of the church. They will be setting up a page on their Web site that documents the support from the individual churches and identifies how this support has helped. Also included is the link to the churches’ Web sites. To date they have received very positive support from numerous churches and are setting up activity for the balance of the year. They also have adopted three elementary schools with the greatest need for support. All of the people who receive financial support from the educational fund are in abject poverty, living in tin shacks with no running water or electricity. This was Mike’s first visit to El Salvador, and although he thought he was prepared for the situation based on Lisa’s descriptions from her visit, he found out quickly that he was not. He says it was a moving experience.

Chris Grier reports that he moved to his new residence in Carefree, Ariz. He is kept busy with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, where he is heading up the utility portfolio optimization practice area. Chris says he really loves the desert. He finds people either love it or hate it, but no one seems to be in between.