De La Cruz: School fire calls upon Marathon core values

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, September 2, 2015

As reported in L’Observateur, in the early hours of Friday/Aug. 14, a fire broke out at East St. John Elementary, which is one of Marathon Petroleum Company’s four locally “adopted” schools and one that’s just a few minutes away from our Garyville refinery.

Many of our employees, myself included, learned of the fire when reporting to work at 7 a.m. that morning, and we understood the fire was still burning.

This news was absolutely devastating to our employees, especially when considering the school year had just begun, school supplies and equipment were no doubt destroyed in the fire and two sets of elementary school students were displaced — students from East St. John Elementary and students from Lake Pontchartrain Elementary, who attend school on East St. John Elementary grounds as a result of being displaced by Hurricane Isaac in 2012.

The fire at East St. John Elementary called upon two of Marathon Petroleum’s core values — supporting our community and supporting our local schools. As we saw the situation, two of our parish’s seven elementary schools were inoperable, hundreds of school-aged children were without classrooms and their parents now had unexpected child care concerns and costs.

As a company, we felt strongly that this is when communities should come together as one, and we were eager to do our part. That morning, on behalf of Marathon Petroleum, I contacted Parish President Natalie Robottom and St. John Parish School District Superintendent Kevin George, pledging the company’s support.

Superintendent George subsequently informed me that New Wine Christian Fellowship, led by Pastor Neil Bernard, volunteered to organize and run a day care program with a learning curriculum for all displaced students and asked if Marathon Petroleum would be willing to provide financial support so the program would be free to families.

I was pleased to bring this proposal forward and both our refinery’s leaders and company’s senior leaders approved. Also, in addition to funding New Wine’s program, Marathon Petroleum simultaneously approved funding to help cover a portion of the costs associated with replacing school supplies and equipment lost in the fire.

Marathon Petroleum then partnered with St. John United Way, led by Executive Director John Olynick, to assist in administering this aid.

Given the urgency of the matter, this all happened in a matter of days, which helped minimize disruptions to impacted families and students and allowed our area children to remain in a learning environment until their replacement facility, at Leon Godchaux Junior High School in Reserve, was ready.

On behalf of Marathon Petroleum, my sincere thanks and appreciation go to the Parish President’s Office, the St. John Parish School District’s Office, New Wine Christian Fellowship, St. John United Way and all other businesses, schools, organizations and individuals who have come together to help our local students and families in need. We are very proud of these partnerships.

Unexpected hardships may hit our parish, but the ability of its leaders and stakeholders to work together for a common goal is both comforting and inspiring. And please be assured, Marathon Petroleum’s commitment to our community and schools will always be strong.

Our continued thanks to L’Observateur for this opportunity to communicate with you. If you have any questions regarding our refinery’s operations or activity in the community, please feel free to contact us at 985-535-2241.

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