“The love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay. Love isn’t love ’til you give it away.”
– Oscar Hammerstein

Valentine’s Day is a special day for St. John Associates. One of the basic values at St. John Associates is giving back to our community. That’s an important quality of everyone who works here and it’s a quality we enjoy sharing together on Valentine’s Day when the entire company comes together to do the bulk of our charitable giving for the year.

There are so many things to love about St. John Associates’ Valentine’s Day tradition! I love how much good we do in the community. I love the opportunity to go out into the community to deliver our contributions and let local organizations know how much we appreciate them. I love the fun of the Valentine’s Day meeting–with hearts and chocolates and other traditional Valentine swag. But the things that made the Valentine’s Day giving tradition most meaningful to me were 1) the fact that it was Ann’s way of acknowledging that we ALL contribute to the success and profitability of the company and therefore should all participate in corporate giving; and 2) the fact that everyone gets to recommend an organization or cause that is meaningful to them–whether as “small” and personal as a bulletproof vest for a K9 officer or as big as a food bank that serves a multi-county region. We learned a lot about each other by hearing about the causes dear to each of our hearts. – Shelley Hahn

Valentine’s Day was the best day at SJA (excluding the holiday party) because we all got together and talked about causes close to our hearts. It was a nice way to learn more about our colleagues and what was important to them. Since there was a finite amount of money to be disbursed, we sometimes had spirited discussions on how much organizations should receive. Getting the chance to take time out of our day to present the checks (and treats) to the organizations was the best part. Especially if they didn’t know they were getting a donation. The surprise on faces was so fun to see. We have gotten ingenious thank yous from organizations and that has been fun, too. – Kathy Avers

Love never fails. I cherish working at SJA because we value people & are committed to loving others by giving. Inexpressible joy fills my heart each time I get the blessing of hand delivering a donation of love to an organization. It’s seriously remarkable! Love makes the world go ’round! – Suzy Cain

This year we have selected to make donations to the following organizations.

Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington
The Nest at New Hope for Families
Centerstone of Indiana Transportation Program
Children’s Villages of Monroe County
Habitat for Humanity Monroe County Women’s Build
Stonebelt
Science Sprouts at Wonderlab
Sycamore Land Trust
Becky’s Place
United Way of Central Indiana
WFHB
Monroe County CASA, Inc. Indiana
Hoosier Hills Food Bank
Diabetes Youth Foundation of Indiana