One of our core values at Marathon Petroleum Company LP (Marathon Petroleum) is to be a responsible and caring member of the communities in which we operate.

Whether it is through jobs creation, educational support, United Way participation or other altruistic efforts, our goal is to be a positive force for St. John Parish and its residents.

We’re very proud to operate our company’s flagship refinery right here in our parish and are equally proud of our employees and contractors for “walking the talk” on community support. The following highlights just a few examples of our employees and company in action that we’d like to share.

On Saturday, July 25, Marathon Petroleum was the title sponsor of the local Back-To-School Extravaganza, a Parish-wide event coordinated by “Blessed Be A Blessing” and designed to provide local students with backpacks and school supplies for the upcoming year.

This fantastic program helps ensure our area students are ready for school and set up for success.

Marathon Petroleum volunteers helped distribute over 500 school supply kits for local children — and notably, the cost for these kits was shared in a big way by our Garyville employees through their own fundraising efforts.

As a company, Marathon Petroleum also provides financial support to every school in the parish, including our adopted schools of East St. John Elementary, East St. John High, Garyville/Mt. Airy Magnet Elementary and the South Central Louisiana Technical College in Reserve.

Marathon Petroleum is also proud to support United Way through our annual employee fundraising campaign and corporate match. Last year, our employees and company provided over $388,000 to St. John United Way.

This represented a significant increase from the prior year, and our goal is to keep raising the bar. Also, in addition to our employee fundraising campaign, Marathon Petroleum will once again operate as title sponsor of the 17th Annual St. John United Way Golf Classic, scheduled for Sept. 10.

We’re happy to continue our partnership with several local businesses and United Way staff on this highly successful program.

Looking ahead, we’re also excited about opportunities to help sponsor this year’s Andouille Festival, UNCF Walk For Life in New Orleans, the Combat Marines Golf Tournament, our annual community celebration at Garyville’s Ezekiel Jackson Park on Oct. 31, the Spring and Fall San Francisco Plantation festivals and our quarterly Council on Aging lunches.

I’ll have much more to say about these and other events as they draw near. I’ll conclude by expressing my sincere thanks and appreciation to L’OBSERVATEUR for affording Marathon Petroleum this important opportunity to communicate with all of you in our community, and I look forward to next month’s column.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact our Garyville office at 985-535-2241 if you have any questions about our refinery or our activity in the community. Thanks!

Jaime De La Cruz is a human resources manager for Marathon Petroleum. He can be reached at jjdelacruz@marathonpetroleum.com.