Marathon Petroleum : supports students heading back to school

Students from West St. John Elementary School received school supply kits from volunteers at the Garyville refinery.

Marathon Petroleum employees are making sure students around the country have an A+ first day of school. Several of our locations hosted school supply drives for students in their communities. Students were equipped with backpacks, supplies, and some received new clothes and new shoes for the first day of class. The students, their families and nonprofit organizations, like Hope House in Findlay, Ohio, were grateful for the support during such an important time in a child's life.

'The annual backpack program means so much to our Hope House families. The burden they face to get everything a child needs to begin a new school year can be overwhelming. These backpacks, filled with new clothes and shoes, help ease that burden. When the kids come in and see everything that's in there, they just light up with excitement,' said one Hope House Case Manager. 'Thank you so much for your generosity and kindness.'

Leaders from Open Arms Domestic Violence Center in Hancock County, Ohio, shared that one little girl immediately put on her new shoes and jumped around the room saying 'I love my new shoes. I love my new shoes. I love them so, so much!'

Here's a wrap up of how some of our locations stepped in to help students heading back to school:

• Findlay Office employees provided clothes, shoes, hygiene items and backpacks for dozens of children at Hope House and Open Arms Domestic Violence Center.
• The ARISE Women's Employee Network San Antonio chapter collected new school supplies, gift cards and headsets for students at Boysville, an emergency shelter and residential foster care program. Volunteers delivered the donations and a $1,500 grant to very grateful staff at Boysville.
• The Canton refinery collected more than 7,000 items for 400 students at Patrick Elementary School. Organizers are planning another drive later this year.
• Catlettsburg Refining Supply Chain spearheaded a back-to-school drive to support area school resource centers. Employees and departments filled 99 backpacks with supplies and clothes for students.
• Employees at the Detroit refinery spent their lunch hour stuffing 325 bookbags for the River Rouge School District. Each bag was filled with a pencil case full of pens, pencils, sticky notes, notebooks and folders.
• The DE&I Employee Networks at the Detroit refinery joined forces to give school supplies and water bottles to families who attended the local police department's family fun day. The DE&I Employee Networks also contributed two pairs of Beats by Dre headphones and kids' toys to the precinct's giveaway.
• The Garyville refinery hosted two back-to-school events to support students. Marathon Petroleum sponsored the annual Backpack Extravaganza in July, and volunteers handed out 500 school supply kits, backpacks and hygiene kits at the community drive-through event. In August, volunteers distributed school supply kits, backpacks and hygiene kits to 100 students at West St. John Elementary School.
• The Robinson refinery volunteers attended the NOW Program (Nutrition on Weekends) back-to-school event to help 240 students receive a backpack, school supplies, new clothes and shoes.
• More than 20 employees from the St. Paul Park refinery volunteered at the Friends in Need Food Shelf after work to stuff hundreds of backpacks with all the school essentials for elementary, middle and high school students in neighboring school districts. Friends in Need is a long-time community partner with the refinery, which provided a multi-year grant to cover costs of the building where the organization is housed, so the organization can continue to provide food to families in need.

We want to wish all the students and their teachers a safe and successful school year.