East Bay Claims President's Message

East Bay Claims Association

2008 EBCA President
Kelly Sullivan
Crawford & Company

Season's Greetings!

December message from
2008 EBCA President
Kelly Sullivan

I Last month’s meeting was incredible! The Oasis Grille treated us very well and the food was amazing! Thanks to Frances Hewitt for orchestrating our venue. Thanks, also, to Bob Gundert with Borton, Petrini for speaking to us on the use of experts in a very entertaining and informative presentation.

And what can I say about the wine tasting?! Lisa Schwichtenberg’s efforts at putting this event together were stellar! We were treated like Kings and Queens at our wine stops in the Livermore Valley, and we ended our day with a fantastic spread of food put together by Lisa herself. For those of you that missed it, check out Bryan Harrison’s cool photo slideshow on our website; www.EastBayAdjusters.org.

Speaking of Bryan Harrison, my personal thanks to Bryan for his awesome photography at all our events throughout the year. He has done an incredible job! I also want to acknowledge my Officers for 2008; Chris Capels-Vice President, Justine Bone-Secretary, and Kim Tamayo-Treasurer. I had an awesome support group! My Board was also fantastic; Steve Bramlett, Ray Depa, Patricia DeRouen, Claudia Gerlach, Bryan Harrison, Frances Hewitt, Michelle Kauffman, Kristen Mayo, Tom Maza, Tom McIver, Brian Saari, Lisa Schwichtenberg and Lisa Winn. I could not have pulled this year off without any of you! Finally, congratulations to next year’s Officers: Ray Depa will lead you as President, with Stevan Muir as Vice President, JoAnn Dean as Secretary, and Kim Tamayo graciously agreeing to again serve as your Treasurer.

I am feeling a bit melancholy as I write my last President’s message for the EBCA. It has been a wonderful year! As I reflect back on what we have shared, I find myself grateful for each and every one of you. I really believe that our organization is second to none! We have members who genuinely care and have put forth unprecedented effort at making our events and luncheon meetings better than ever! Thank you to all of you!

I came across a touching story about angels I thought I would share with you as I end my term and in consideration of the holidays. In your own way, many of you have been ‘angels’ to me;

In September, 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress. I loaded them into my rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck.

The last place we went was an old truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she needed someone on the graveyard shift. She paid 65 cents an hour and said I could start that night. I raced home and called the teenage babysitter down the street and bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night.

And so I started at the Big Wheel. When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money; half of what I averaged every night.

As the weeks went by, I found that the tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and had begun to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home. I crossed my fingers that I would make it home safely every day and somehow always did.

One bleak fall morning, when I got off my shift, I went to my car and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note; just a full set of beautiful brand-new tires! I made a deal with the owner of the local service station. In exchange for him mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I was then working six nights instead of five, but grateful to feel safe again.

I knew Christmas was around the corner and that there would be no money for toys or presents. I found a can of red paint at the service station and started repairing and painting some of the kids’ old toys. Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys’ pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair but there was nothing more I could do.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were truckers I’d come to know and had grown fond of. There was Les, Frank, Jim, and a State Trooper named Joe. That night, they were kind to me as always, but seemed unusually quiet; almost as if they shared some sort of secret...

When it was time for me to go home at seven o’clock on Christmas morning, I hurried to the car. I was hoping the kids wouldn’t wake up before I managed to get the recycled toys I’d worked on out of the car and under the tree, (we had cut down a small Cedar tree by the side of the road). It was still dark as I walked towards my car and I couldn’t see much, but as I got closer, something looked different as I peered warily into the side windows.

Then my jaw dropped in amazement. My old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes! I quickly opened the driver’s side door, scrambled inside and reached into the back seat. I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was a whole case of blue jeans in all the right sizes! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans!

I peeked inside some of the other boxes: There were candy canes and groceries. There was even an enormous Christmas ham and vegetables and potatoes! There were cookies, pie filling and flour and a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And finally, there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll. I looked back at the diner in amazement, and found that my trucker friends were gone.

As I drove home through empty streets and the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I found myself overcome with gratitude...And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning. Yes, there were angels in my hometown that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop. (AUTHOR UNKNOWN)

I do believe in Angels. They live in my neighborhood, work in my office, call me when I am having a rough day out of the blue, and they most definitely were part of the EBCA this year. So many of you demonstrated your ‘angel ways’ by donating a toy or gift to the Bay Area Crisis Nursery; our chosen charity at the Christmas party on December 5th at Zio Fraedo’s. Thank you to Kim Tamayo, and the Holiday Party planning committee for such a great job with the Roaring 20s festivities. What a fun night!

Happy Holidays to all, and thank you again for a wonderful year! See you in 2009!

Warmest Regards,
Kelly Sullivan
Kelly Sullivan
Your 2008 EBCA President
Crawford & Company
925-876-8354 | Kelly_Sullivan@us.crawco.com

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