Welcome ! LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
I f 2020 was on our Spotify playlist , I think it is safe to say we would all just hit “ skip ” and move on . What a year this has turned out to be . The wildfires in the Western United States have devastated communities in California , Colorado , Oregon and the State of Washington . California alone saw four million acres burn from five of the largest fires on record this year . Scenes of these wildfires looked like they were drawn using CGI from the latest disaster movie .
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season broke numerous records . It was only the second time hurricane names from the official alphabet list had been used up , forcing forecasters to move to the supplementary list of Greek letter names . This season saw the most named storms in any year totaling 29 ( Named storms are those that reach at least tropical storm strength , with winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour ). There were 12 named storms that hit the United States , breaking the previous record of nine from 1916 . Louisiana set a record with five named storms to land in a single season .
This year has seen 16 natural disasters including wildfires , hurricanes , tornadoes and drought ( Phoenix , AZ , set a record for the most days with temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher with 144 days ). Each of these disasters caused at least $ 1 billion in damage , tying records set in 2011 and 2017 with a month to go .
And of course , we are still in the midst of a global pandemic that reached the United States in February-March , forcing much of the economy to shut down for long periods of time , and the permanent loss of so many businesses as a result . As of this writing and according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center , we are averaging close to 200,000 new cases a day with a total number of cases in the US at 13.92 million , and 273,920 people have died from COVID-19 . Hopefully the FDA will very shortly give its final approval to a number of the vaccines that have been tested with high percentages of success so we can begin the arduous task of delivering and administering the vaccines in a safe and efficient manner .
So yeah . Given the opportunity to skip 2020 I think it ’ s safe to say we all would .
As you can see from the cover of this issue , we are again focusing on a few of our clients that have overcome the many challenges of 2020 , shifted their day to day operations to achieve success despite of everything thrown at them .
On the cover is Mark Weiss , CEO from Action Staffing , a staffing company that caters specifically to the light industrial industry . Early on Mark was contacted by the Governor ’ s Team to identify Action Staffing as an essential business and to continue to operate even when the state was shut down . You can read about the changes his operation had to implement in order to remain open and continue to serve his clientele . With the reopening of the state , Action Staffing had to open two new offices to meet the rising demand and today is operating above pre-pandemic levels !
We have also featured the Newark YMCA , a not-for-profit organization focused on serving the needs of people of all ages in the community with core programs including housing , health and fitness , youth programs , camping and social services . The Newark YMCA is different from most others as they continue to recognize the need for emergency shelters in their community with 500 people calling the YMCA their home every night . Since they started working with JGS they have been able to reduce their claims experience through risk management and loss prevention programs implemented .
This has reduced their annual insurance premiums allowing them to put more money into programs and serving their community .
Summit Imports is among the largest Asian Food import distributors on the East Coast with an additional Chicago base to service the Midwest . With a large portion of the customer base being restaurants , Summit had to pivot to the spiking supermarket demand as a result . This required an entirely different selection of goods . Demand remains high and it is a struggle to keep up with the changing marketplace .
And finally , Indra Energy started as a fuel oil heating company in Brooklyn , New York , in 1938 . They have since evolved from selling home heating oil in 2016 to offering gas and electricity in the forms of hydro , wind , solar and other renewable sources . They have expanded into nine different states . When the lockdown occurred in the spring , a majority of Indra ’ s new business stopped . Indra needed to change the way they were selling from in person to digitized marketing and have since implemented creative plans to attract new customers with much success !
I hope you enjoy reading about the success stories some of our clients have achieved given the crazy world in which we find ourselves currently living . It is nice to be able to spotlight some of the innovative ideas that they have developed .
I wish you all a very safe and happy holiday season and look forward to a much more optimistic 2021 ! Cheers ! +
Vinnie Hager , President JGS Insurance est . 1919 JGSINSURANCE . COM
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