June Newsletter

June 2020

Monthly

Newsletter

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have profound impacts all around the world. Even well intended public health actions, like social distancing, can make people feel lonely.

For Bob, a Shawmut employee, the isolation affected his relationship with his father, Ken, who lives in an assisted facility. Like other senior homes, visitors were no longer permitted in an effort to keep the residents safe.

Even though they tried to use FaceTime the generational gap was too wide for Ken. That’s when the Shawmut team came up with an idea called #PrintLove which gives people a way to send personalized postcards to loved ones, brave front line employees, heroic health-care workers, or anyone that could use some joy.

Through an easy-to-use online platform, anyone can customize a 100 percent post-consumer waste postcard and Shawmut takes care of the rest – even delivery!

To take #PrintLove to the next level, Shawmut partnered with one of its customers, The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) , a nonprofit organization that provides food to the needy. GBFB has seen a surge in demand for food in the past three months through its network of more than 600 distribution partners in eastern Massachusetts.

The Shawmut team understood that because of the pandemic, GBFB needed even more support and will donate all profits from #PrintLove to the organization. This allowed Shawmut to give back to its community which has done so much in the past.

“As an SGP printer, we’re used to looking for creative ways to help our clients and those within our community,” explained Kristin Spanier, Shawmut’s SGP Program Director. “I believe that this is part of our collective commitment: ‘To Do Better.’”

For more information about Shawmut and #PrintLove, visit the link provided: www.marketing.shawmutdelivers.com/printlove

Spring 2020 will be remembered as both a scary and pivotal time for our country and world. It was the month that COVID-19, a Coronavirus, got real for millions of Americans. Up until March, it was believed that this was largely a problem from, and for, another part of the world. By the third week of March, we were all too aware of the practice of social distancing, repeated hand washing and the potential that mask wearing would have in keeping us safe. It had also become apparent that supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) were beginning to be in very short supply for most of the nation.

It was in the last week of March when The Advertisers Printing Company’s Chief Operating Officer and forth generation principal, Alex Fechner, made the bold decision to utilize our company’s time, talent and technologies to begin generating face shields for front line healthcare workers in our local St. Louis community hospitals and medical schools. We sourced acrylic mylar through our merchant supply chain and began die-cutting this material with a little assistance from a friend, and fellow printer “Hatteras” on the east coast. Bill Duerr , President of Hatteras, was very helpful in lending die templates and his enthusiastic design knowledge.

All in all, The Advertisers Printing Co. manufactured and donated 3,200 face shields to approximately 20 different healthcare institutions. Their reaction was one of sheer joy, relief and warm appreciation. The lesson here is that although this virus and pandemic were a new foe to be battled, our company ethos of conscious capitalism and a “can-do” spirit reminded us of our cultural roots. You see the company has always placed our stakeholders and the environment first. Clients, co-workers and community have always been our guiding north star, with equal focus on people, profit & planet. Which is why we have been such strong advocates of SGP for all these years. A perfect philosophical alignment.

Written by: John Heaney, SVP Sales; The Advertisers Printing Co & SGP Board Member

Pictured Above: : Dr Robert M. Heaney MD - Internal Medicine & teaching Physician at St. Louis University School of Medicine