Building a Civically Engaged Community
At Travelers, many of our employees are actively involved in the civic life in their communities as members of their local economic development commission, city council, board of education and more. They are bringing the skills and qualities that make them great employees at Travelers out to their communities and in turn are developing leadership and other skills that they can carry over to their work at Travelers.
Through Citizen TravelersSM, we showcase the many ways to contribute, share information and inspire others to get involved as well. Through our internal Citizen Travelers portal, our civic-minded employees are connecting across geographies and interest areas, seeking advice on mutual challenges and supporting each other’s dedication to the civic life. By creating new avenues of collaboration among civic leaders in communities across the U.S., we are working together to strengthen our communities and our country.
Employee spotlight: Ojala
Ojala’s grandfather kept telling her she would be president one day — an idea that sparked her lifelong passion for understanding how communities work and helping wherever she could. “Giving back to my community is what fills my heart,” she says. So when she moved to a new town she immediately volunteered for its economic development commission. Now she’s a member of the town council, tackling issues large and small and learning more about what people in her community need. “It’s really great to see citizens turning out to share their opinions and their insights and their concerns,” she says. “All our voices matter.”
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A woman sits in an office.
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It sort of engaged this passion of, like, what does that even mean, understanding why do we have these elected officials, and what are they doing for our communities.
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In 2021, I moved to the town of Windsor.
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The most eye-opening part coming in as a town councilwoman was that there really isn’t any problem too big or too small that we’re considering as elected officials. In my first council meeting, I covered everything from replacement of trees on our town center and making sure that that’s taken care of in a safe manner, all the way to public safety challenges that we’re having.
I also started developing relationships with the councilors on all sides of the aisle, and just getting to know them a little bit more, making sure they knew me. It was great getting to know folks and sharing a little bit more about myself. It is so important for all of us to get engaged in our communities.
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Employee spotlight: Jim
After 25 years of pouring his heart and soul into his work with the police department, Jim knows a lot about the power of partnership in fostering safer communities. After transitioning from his role in public service to corporate security, Jim didn’t hesitate when the mayor asked him to volunteer as Chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners. “I am forever appreciative of this community. I couldn’t imagine not wanting to give back,” he said.
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Logo and text, Citizen TravelersSM, Partnering for Public Safety. Text: Jim, Corporate Security, Travelers. Jim smiles at you.
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JIM: Hi, I'm Jim. I'm a director of corporate security operations. My primary duty is I oversee a 24/7 control center, Hartford campus.
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Jim walks into the control center and checks a monitor screen. The room has many computer monitors up on a wall and on desks.
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I just finished just over 25 years with the New Britain Police Department.
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Jim is in a kitchen, and coffee drips into a mug decorated with the shield of the New Britain Police Department.
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I poured my heart and soul into that career, but I certainly never stopped caring about the men and women of the police department.
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A photo of Jim in police uniform and smiling and waving is on a frame that is decorated with three brass stars at the top. The text New Britain Police Department is below the stars. In the next scenes, Jim uses a computer, then walks in a hallway while holding a coffee cup.
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I had just retired four or five months earlier and started my new position at Travelers. And I received a call from the mayor and asked would I please come back to serve in the capacity as commissioner on the New Britain Board of Police Commissioners.
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Jim walks towards the entrance of the police department building.
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I said yes in an instant.
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Text: Mayor Erin Stewart, New Britain, CT. Mayor Stewart talks to Jim and Chief Matthew Marino on the building's balcony. A flagpole with the flag of the USA is in the background.
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ERIN STEWART: Civic engagement and civic involvement is, unfortunately, something that people take for granted. But it's people like Jim who are involved right from the beginning doing it out of the genuineness of their heart, that's important and that's what makes our communities thrive.
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Jim poses in the police department building.
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ERIN STEWART: That's what makes our community stronger. That's eventually what is going to make our entire nation stronger.
JIM: The city of New Britain has been very good to me.
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Suburban housing in New Britain. Jim walks across a street crossing downtown near a church. We soar above the police department building, then zoom and hover just above the entrance.
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My experiences here have the full range from wonderful to horrific, but it made me the man that I am.
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Jim walks into the police department building.
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And I am forever appreciative of this community. I could not imagine not wanting to give back.
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Overhead images of the town are seen. A man sits at a desk in a church library and writes on a pad while referring to a book.
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Pastor Barger.
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Pastor Barger stands and walks towards Jim with a bright face.
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GERVAIS BARGER: Hello, chief. How are you doing?
JIM: I'm doing really good.
GERVAIS BARGER: Oh my goodness.
JIM: How are you?
GERVAIS BARGER: So great to see you, sir.
JIM: Great to see you.
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The two men shake hands and hug each other. A street sign near the church indicates a crossroads of Main St. and Chestnut St.
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GERVAIS BARGER: Chief, I'm telling you, my view of policing changed because of you.
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Jim nods slightly as he listens to Pastor Barger. Text: Rev. Gervais Barger, Pastor of Peace Mission Ministries, New Britain, CT.
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And the path that you were trying to create was one where the police department is one that's transparent.
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A photo shows Pastor Barger shaking hands with Jim as he gives Jim a framed document. Text: Humanitarian Award, Black Ministers Alliance of New Britain.
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And I want you to know Jim, we gave you that award because it embodied the things that you were doing in the city and how we genuinely felt of the great job that you were doing.
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Jim and Pastor Barger smile brightly as they hug and shake hands in the church library. We fly towards the facade of the police department building. We are back on the building's balcony, where Mayor Stewart, Jim, and Chief Marino are talking.
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ERIN STEWART: I think having Jim serve as head of the police commission, it's monumental for this community because in the trusted and respected person that you are throughout our community. And you established that when you were chief, but you're continuing that in service in a different role and volunteering, might I add, for that too.
JIM: Mayor Stewart, you inspired me. We had a big team effort throughout. Chief Marino, you were a part of it. I saw you go from patrolman to sergeant to lieutenant to captain, and now chief.
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Chief Marino nods as he listens to Jim. Jim poses with his arms crossed in the lobby of the police department building. Text: Chief Matthew Marino, New Britain, CT Police Department.
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MATTHEW MARINO: Jim's always going to be chief to me. He set the example that I want to live up to as a chief now.
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A police car turns right and heads near the church. We are back on the building's balcony, where Mayor Stewart, Jim, and Chief Marino are talking.
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ERIN STEWART: We've been through a lot. And our city is not necessarily an easy one. And so having that respect and people that are respected in the community through and through serve in these volunteer roles, it means a lot for how the public views and interacts with our police department today.
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A small lake in a park, a street lined with low buildings, the campus of Central Connecticut State University. We are back on the building's balcony, where Mayor Stewart, Jim, and Chief Marino are talking.
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ERIN STEWART: And you did a lot of laying the groundwork to help where we are today for that.
JIM: When I started working at Travelers, civic engagement was a reoccurring theme.
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Jim works in the control center with a colleague, then they wave goodbye to each other.
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It's a theme that I embrace.
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Jim buys coffee from two brightly smiling workers at Brew & Moo coffee shop, then they wave goodbye.
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You have to just stay involved, contribute, and make where we live the best possible place.
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Jim smiles at you. Text: Citizen TravelersSM. To learn more, visit travelers.com slash Citizen Travelers. Citizen Travelers is a nonpartisan initiative to empower Travelers employees to take part in the civic life of their communities. The Travelers Indemnity Company. All rights reserved. Travelers and the Travelers Umbrella logo are registered trademarks of The Travelers Indemnity Company in the U.S. and other countries.
Powering the polls
Trish, Lisa and Tom share their experiences as election officials, each assuming a pivotal responsibility in ensuring their community’s election runs smoothly and is fair and accessible for all. Lisa’s county, like most around the country, faces a shortage of poll workers to staff elections – which she saw as an opportunity to actively volunteer and fulfill her civic duty. For Tom, being a poll worker gave him the chance to educate electors on the steps involved to maintain the integrity of the voting process. Trish served as an election judge in her county, driven by a desire to enhance unity and foster greater understanding. These Travelers employees exemplify steadfast leadership in their communities – evolving from concerned citizens to inspiring election officials, committed to civic service and democratic values.
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Logo, Citizen Travelers Service Mark. Text: Powering the Polls. South Carolina, Connecticut, Illinois. Trish, Director, Global Services, Travelers. Trish walks down a sidewalk.
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I’m an election judge here in DuPage County. I’m responsible for setting up the election, hosting the election, ensuring that all of our election procedures are adhered to.
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Lisa, Business Process Manager, Personal Insurance, Travelers. She pours coffee into a red Travelers mug. She sits at a laptop with the mug in the foreground.
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I work with the elections as a poll manager, and my responsibilities are making sure that people who come in to vote are able to vote.
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Tom, Sr. Director, Enterprise Market Research, Travelers. He stands in front of Eno Memorial Hall. He sits in an auditorium.
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I’ve been the checker, who is the individual who crossed your name off the list, the ballot clerk, who hands out the ballots, the tabulator tender, the person who stands in the back and makes sure your ballot stays in the ballot machine. And then finally, the assistant registrar.
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A suburban neighborhood.
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My county has 400,000 people, and they need 1,500 people to work the elections each year. So it was really my opportunity to get involved and do my civic duty and volunteer to be one of the poll workers here in my county.
I volunteered to be an election judge in 2022. It was very important for me to get involved and work towards improving the way our country’s been polarized over the last few years.
I was actually one evening watching the news, and they were running a piece about how COVID in 2020 was driving people away from participating in the elections. As a poll worker or election official, I immediately went to my computer and I sent an email saying, do you need any help?
It’s nice to have representation from everywhere, just to make sure that people have access to vote and it’s a fair election.
So I think that’s the part of working the polls that’s really valuable is that you’re helping your neighbors, and you’re helping the democracy process by being able to get everybody in to vote that’s eligible. Without poll workers, you are going to have the things that you see on the news about long lines or people waiting after the polls have closed to vote in those long lines.
I would say my two biggest priorities as an election official are integrity and supporting the electors to vote. And I am a big advocate for sharing with anybody and everybody all the steps that we go through to maintain the integrity of the voting process.
One aspect of being an election official that surprised me, pleasantly; we don’t talk about politics. When we’re working the election, everybody is dedicated to the integrity of the election and allowing the electors to move through the process so they can vote.
I love that Travelers created Citizen Travelers to help us be more civically minded and civically engaged. If you think about our values of taking care of our customers, our communities and each other, it directly aligns with my own personal values. So if I was talking to somebody who wanted to think about volunteering for the election, I would tell them, just do it. Volunteering has helped to set me up for success at Travelers because it’s a front-row seat to meeting people where they are.
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Logo and text, Citizen Travelers Service Mark. To learn more, visit travelers dot com slash CitizenTravelers. Citizen Travelers is a nonpartisan initiative to empower Travelers employees to take part in the civic life of their communities. © 2024 The Travelers Indemnity Company. All rights reserved. Travelers and the Travelers Umbrella logo are registered trademarks of the Travelers Indemnity in the U.S. and other countries.
Employee spotlight: Elizabeth
When Elizabeth first moved into her neighborhood, she worried about the derelict houses on her block—and the danger they could pose to the community. But when she heard gunshots in her front yard, she knew it was time for her to act. Elizabeth got involved with her elected Neighborhood Council, organizing an inventory of abandoned properties. Then she contacted Habitat for Humanity, which purchased and renovated some of the houses. And that was only the beginning: When people saw the changes, they were inspired to join in—transforming the entire neighborhood. “It was amazing,” Elizabeth says. Now, when she hears people say, “Someone should fix this!” she spreads the word: “It's up to us.”
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Text, Citizen Travelers. Revitalizing Our Neighborhoods. Spokane, Washington. We look over Spokane from a high vantage point. Older red, brown, and tan buildings occupy streets lined with trees. A bridge crosses a river downtown. A woman wearing black with long straight hair walks up to a house on a block. There is gravel instead of a yard in front.
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ELIZABETH MARLIN: A lot of the folks in this community don't have the ability to advocate for themselves. So, I have a responsibility, almost a stewardship of the neighborhood, to show up and represent those who can't speak for themselves and make sure that their voices are heard.
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She turns to face the street, her chin held high. Elizabeth faces us in an office. Text, Elizabeth. Personal Insurance Team Lead, Travelers.
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My name is Elizabeth. I'm Chair of the West Central Neighborhood Council.
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Colorful wind chimes hang on a porch. A row of houses in an older neighborhood. One has a fenced in front yard and an American flag on the porch.
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I bought this house and realized pretty quickly that throughout the neighborhood every single block had derelict abandoned houses that were creating nuisance activity and were dragging down entire blocks.
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A house in the neighborhood with junk piled in the yard. A chain link fence bounds a front yard.
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The a-ha moment for me came when we actually had a shooting right here on my front lawn.
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Elizabeth faces us in an office.
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My son was four months old. I will never forget, at quarter to 5:00 in the morning in the nursery hearing gunshots and huddling on the floor with my baby.
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Elizabeth tilts her head and frowns
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And that's when I realized it was time to get involved.
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She walks down the sidewalk in the neighborhood.
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The first step for me was getting involved with my neighborhood council. In Spokane, neighborhood councils are democratically elected representation.
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She faces a house with leaves piled on the roof. A house has an open door and a stairway in the entry foyer.
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Some of the neighbors got together and just started walking up and down each block and creating an inventory. And then I reached out to Habitat, and they began to purchase and rehab some of these zombie houses.
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Sign, Habitat for Humanity® Spokane. www.habitat-spokane.org. 509-534-2552. Building Homes, Building Hope. A man on a ladder works on a ceiling.
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Rehabbing these houses, Habitat, it was pulling entire blocks back from the brink, one house at a time. And that's kind of how the whole ball got going.
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We look over the neighborhood in the winter. A for sale sign from Prime realtors is posted in front of a house with a new wood and wire fence. Many houses now have tidy yards and porches with decorations and outdoor furniture.
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We had immediate improvement in the neighborhood surrounding these houses. A lot of the neighbors noticed the change. So they started investing in their own homes, picking up the trash, painting, taking pride, planting flowers, it was amazing.
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Elizabeth sits at a computer desk in an office.
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A lot of my work in customer service is dealing with customers who sometimes aren't at their best. And I developed the skills to de-escalate, to teach, to educate, to calm them down, and to help connect them with solutions. And really, that's all I'm doing with the neighborhood council.
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Elizabeth speaks with a neighborhood resident standing at her chain link fence with her dog.
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Because of my experience with Travelers, I'm now able to sit people down to educate them, to work with them, and to help them find an equitable solution for all of us.
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In the interview chair, she smiles wryly and raises a fist.
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I hear this a lot. I hear from people that they should fix it, someone should fix this problem.
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She lowers her fist and raises her eyebrows.
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And I hate to break this to people, they aren't coming.
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She walks down the neighborhood sidewalk and waves to people with a smile.
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We as a community, as an organization, as individuals really have to step up and to be an active part of our government and an active part of our community is so important. And I'm beyond proud to be a part of Travelers and to be part of a company that encourages me to be a good citizen.
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She opens the gate in the white fence to her house's yard and smiles. Text, Citizen Travelers. To learn more visit travelers dot com slash Citizen Travelers. Citizen Travelers is a non-partisan initiative to empower Travelers employees to take part in the civic life of their communities. The Travelers Indemnity Company. All rights reserved. Travelers and the Travelers Umbrella logo are registered trademarks of The Travelers Indemnity Company in the U.S. and other countries.
Employee spotlight: Krishna
As the child of immigrants who became naturalized citizens, Krishna has never forgotten the pride her parents took in voting. Now a lawyer, she’s helping others fulfill the promise of representative democracy through her work with Election Protection. She’s a guide through the registration process, getting people to the polls and ensuring they have the opportunity to vote. “It’s great to work for a company that supports civic engagement,” she says, but perhaps her biggest reward is in the eyes of those first-timers she has helped. “After they’ve voted and they come out, they’re so excited.”
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Text, Citizen Travelers. Election Protection.
A woman walks down a city sidewalk. She sits in an office. Text, Krishna, Senior Counsel, Personal Insurance Legal Services.
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KRISHNA: My name is Krishna, and I'm a senior counsel in the Personal Insurance Legal Services organization. I've been with Travelers for 12 years.
I've been doing election protection work since I was 18.
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A picture of a couple sitting together on a couch, smiling.
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When election protection came to our campus, what it made me actually think of was my parents coming to this country and becoming naturalized citizens. They've been so proud of their right to vote, and it's something that's always stuck with me. And I want to empower others.
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Krishna crosses a street. She sits at a table in front of a window with a sign that reads, Equality. A hand places a piece of paper in a box. A person fills out a ballot. A sticker that reads, I voted. People in line behind tables with signs that read, Vote.
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I have been helping monitor the polls, help inform people about how they can register to vote, ensuring that people actually get to the polls and have an opportunity to vote.
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She enters a building through a revolving door. She walks down a hallway, passing a sign on the wall that reads, Travelers Reception.
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I would hope that other companies see our efforts and follow in suit, so that no matter what type of job you have or what commitments you have, you're able to hopefully set aside some time and you can go vote.
There's always the person who's voting for the first time. It's really special to help that individual go through the process for the first time, and then after they voted and they come out and they're so excited.
I think it's great to work for a company that supports civic engagement. That's why it matters to me.
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Text, Citizen Travelers. To learn more visit travelers.com/CitizenTravelers. Citizen Travelers is a non-partisan initiative to empower Travelers employees to take part in the civic life of their communities.
The Travelers Indemnity Company. All rights reserved. Travelers and the Travelers Umbrella logo are registered trademarks of the Travelers Indemnity Company in the U.S. and other countries.
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