On behalf of Marathon Petroleum Company LP, we are very proud to become the first ever Title Sponsor of St. John Parish’s Andouille Festival!

Since 1973, the Andouille Festival has been a pivotal event in our community that has helped raise money for many meaningful causes, such as supporting our local schools and charitable organizations. We are thrilled to join this team and are thankful for the opportunity to further solidify our partnership with Parish leaders and members of our community.

In particular, we are thankful to St. John Parish President Natalie Robottom and her staff for affording us this collaborative role — which we consider an honor.

This year’s Andouille Festival will take place Oct. 16-18 at the St. John Community Center on Highway 51 — and we encourage everyone to attend. We’ll have great food, live music, arts and crafts and activities for kids of all ages. We look forward to a fun-filled weekend and hope to see you there.

We are also pleased to once again host our annual community festival at Ezekiel Jackson Park in Garyville on Oct. 31. Please join us from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for world-class jambalaya, music, community fellowship and activities for kids such as arts and crafts and punt, pass and kick.

We’ll also have inflatable attractions, face-painting, music, a petting zoo and giveaways.

Lastly, you may have seen our employees at local high school football games supporting our schools’ athletic programs. For several years now we have donated to the athletic programs of East St. John High School, West St. John High School, Riverside Academy and St. Charles Catholic. We wish our student-athletes the very best this season and are rooting for them all!

Looking ahead, we have just completed our refinery’s United Way Campaign, and I look forward to sharing our employees’ fantastic generosity and deep commitment to community in next month’s article.

Until then, we remain grateful to L’OBSERVATEUR for this communication venue and encourage you to reach out to us with any questions regarding our refinery or activities in the community.

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