As the largest employer in the parish, we believe we have an obligation to give back and support the community in as many ways as possible. We work hard to live up to this expectation and this past month made me particularly proud of our community commitment.

I’d like to mention two of our most outstanding achievements in July. First, we served as the title sponsor of the Backpack Extravaganza.

Students in St. John Parish received backpacks, school supply kits, hygiene kits, health screenings and more.

We are thrilled to participate in this event with our elected officials and community stakeholders, including St. John United Way and several local non-profit organizations. We had 75 Marathon employees who volunteered to make this event a success.

We also sponsored the 65th Anniversary of the Korean War Armistice Ceremony at the Southeast Louisiana War Veterans Home. Our employees served a wonderful meal of Shrimp and Grits and set up a veteran photo booth that was a huge hit.

We also donated $5,000 to go towards necessities at the home and provided raffle prizes for our veterans. Marathon strongly believes in supporting our troops and this event is part of our year-long commitment to honoring our veterans.

There’s more to come in our community outreach initiatives over the next few months including our St. John United Way fundraising campaign, Andouille Festival, the UNCF Walk for Education and Marathon Day at Ezekiel Jackson Park to name a few.

We look forward to continuing our current community partnerships and developing new relationships in he future.

Megan Hudson is the Human Resources Manager for Marathon Petroleum’s Garyville Refinery. She can be reached at mnhudson@marathonpetroleum.com.