Local Allstate agent honored for volunteer work

$500 grant given to Boys and Girls Club

The Boys and Girls Club of Columbia Basin have helping hands in Moses Lake.

Allstate exclusive agent Debbie Graser recently received the Agency Hands in the Community award for her volunteer work with the Boys and Girls Club.

"I've always been on their auction committee, helping with the auction, which is their main fund raiser for the year," Graser said. "My main part usually is the wine, because we always have a wine tasting with it. And so I usually help design the glasses, wash the glasses, set up the wine serving part and help get the wineries to give wine."

Graser said that this is the ninth year she has been involved with the club and its auction. She first got involved through the Lioness Club and a fund raiser to hire a club director, she said.

She noted that the glasses have become something of a collector's item. Graser also helps each year to procure items for the auction, she said, and donates gift baskets.

With the award comes a $500 grant to the Boys and Girls Club, explained Darcy Olson, spokesperson for the Allstate Foundation.

"It's basically a grant that recognizes agents for their community involvement," Olson said. "Being involved in the community is something we encourage all of our agents and employees to do. Those folks who do commit time to the community, we definitely like to reward them for that."

Graser said that both Allstate and the Boys and Girls Club are trying to give back to the community, noting that Allstate is developing a financial empowerment program to teach teens about handling checking accounts and financial services and helping youth employment opportunities to begin their own business.

"We really saw the need in the community," she said of her early involvement. "A lot of kids are in sports and other activities, and usually those type of activities, the parents are involved in that, but there's a lot of kids in our area (whose) parents work two jobs. (They) go home after school, there's not a lot of structure there, or single-parent families. It's hard with two parents, raising a kid these days. (The club is) giving them a positive place to go."

Graser said that she is also working on obtaining a $5000 grant for the club.