Sacramento Claims Pays It Forward at July Luncheon
By Marjorie Hickey
Carl Warren & Company

Bryan Harrison’s wonderful slide show of the SCA Golf Tournament was the background for the July Meeting. With (Immediate Past President) Art Coussoulis substituting for Don Sams at this meeting and luncheon of the SCA, we were reminded a bit of our past as an association and then applauded the fact that the Sacramento Claims Association is now indeed one of the foremost claims associations in California. We are fortunate to have an active membership interested in supporting the local community; more about that later! Art reminded us that we should always feel free to contact the Board Members with an eye to the fact that it takes a joint effort to keep this ball rolling. It does not matter if you are a vendor, an adjuster or a lawyer! Whatever role you have, the door is open and your ideas and suggestions are important.

Art went on to announce that the SCA has basically outgrown itself and for that reason, we have established a Financial Committee with Kelly Dennison as the Chairperson. Financial support for our association has been phenomenal and therefore, we are dealing with a bit more than pocket change these days. Looking forward, we have engaged a high powered motivational speaker for the month of November and we are planning an Education Seminar in the first quarter of 2010 that will have an awesome offering of continuing education credits. Winter Party is on the calendar for January and of course, the month of September brings CCNC.

Bryan Harrison, 2009 President of CCNC, was given a chance to update us on the upcoming conference. A full house is expected and the education offerings are exceptional with an unprecedented level of credits. Registration is still ongoing so all members are encouraged to register if you have not already. It is going to be a very worthwhile conference!

We then got down to the real business of the day when Art introduced Assemblyman Ted Gaines, Placer County Supervisor.What is the SCA, why do we exist and what is the mission of this association? The SCA has historically supported charitable causes and the current focus is Acres of Hope, a grass roots organization that provides positive action in the community for moms and kids. Assemblyman Gaines stressed the point that government can not and should not be all things. It takes a village as the saying goes. The Sacramento Claims Association received words of praise from the Assemblyman as we were recognized for supporting Acres of Hope to the tune of $10,000.00; the largest donation made by the SCA ever. You may have heard Don speak about paying it forward; well, that is exactly what the SCA has done with Acres of Hope. The SCA supports Acres of Hope as they pay it forward delivering a service and stretching a dollar to help moms and kids whose lives have been wounded by the chaos of all different types of dysfunction.

Assemblyman Gaines presented a Certificate of Appreciation to Art and after the photos were taken, we heard from Darrell and Regina Sarmento, the “mom and pop” founders of Acres of Hope. Regina gave a powerful talk about how Acres of Hope strives to bridge the gap between “them and us.” She compared the process to what an adjuster does to return an insured or a claimant to normalcy. The challenge is that the moms and kids she works with have deep, deep wounds and have no idea what “normal” actually is. We learned that neglect is worse than abuse causing the brain to send messages without logic. This leads to the perception that the world is not safe and causes a person to shutdown and withdraw. Acres of Hope focuses of healing these wounds so that a person can become healthy inside and live in the world with a healthy mind.

What a profound talk by Regina and at the end of the meeting, we celebrated the fact that the SCA paid it forward to Acres of Hope with a group photograph outside. In the middle of the photograph was a large copy of a check made payable to Acres of Hope from the SCA in the amount of $10,000.00!

We should all celebrate this and yes, let’s keep on paying it forward not only as an association but also as individuals.
See you all at the August Meeting!