San Diego schools, students beneficiaries of 2016 RIMS Community Service Day

SAN DIEGO – Risk professionals from around the world rolled up their sleeves to use paintbrushes and other tools to provide schools in San Diego – host city of RIMS ’16: Go Beyond – with a facelift as part of the 10^th RIMS Community Service Day.

The 10th RIMS Community Service Day was held on April 10. Photo credit: RIMS.

Kicking off the 2016 conference and exhibition, Community Service Day on Apr. 10 offered an opportunity to give back to the local community, notes a statement from RIMS, the risk management society.

Initiated in 2007 when RIMS became one of the first entities to host a large convention in post-Katrina New Orleans, the annual event is meant to support local families and rebuild infrastructure devastated by the natural disaster.

This year, participants worked with Harmonium to paint, landscape and complete low-maintenance projects for the schools that host the non-profit’s Klassic Kids program. Harmonium is a San Diego-based non-profit that promotes the well-being of children, youth and adults through creative education, intervention and prevention services, while the Klassic Kids program offers before- and after-school care and full-day care at designated sites on non-school days.

Mary Roth, CEO of RIMS

“It is important for all of us to take a step back from our professional obligations and give back to our communities,” emphasizes Mary Roth (pictured left), chief executive officer of RIMS, adding that conference participants are proud to “lend our support to local families and children in need.”

A second Community Service Day project will be held Apr. 12 in the Exhibit Hall at the San Diego Convention Center, where the conference is being held.

Risk professionals will assemble backpacks to be donated to local elementary schools as part of Blessings in a Backpack, a non-profit that provides elementary school children on the federal Free and Reduced Price Meal Program with a backpack of food to take home for 38 weekends during the school year.

The RIMS Annual Conference & Exhibition attracts some 10,000 risk and insurance professionals, business executives with risk management interests, brokers, insurers and service providers.

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.