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Giving Back

The lights on the baseball diamond in Patoka City Park were on long before daylight last Friday, but not for a baseball game.

About 90 minutes before daybreak, more than a dozen workers were making improvements to the field.
The work was being done through the Exxon/Mobil Volunteer Involvement program, which gets company employees out completing projects that benefit the community in which they live.
Jeremy Landreth, one of the Exxon/Mobil employees working on Friday morning said that most recent improvements in the Patoka park included replacing worn-out asphalt under the bleachers with concrete, ditch work to improve drainage, putting caps along the chain link fence around the outfield, installing new foul poles and taking care of electrical issues at the nearby batting cage.
Later in the day, company employees were building a wall and shelves, as well as some electrical work, at the recently opened food pantry in Patoka. The food pantry was started with the help of Exxon/Mobil employee Shawn Splechter.
“The big thing that we provide is the labor,” said Paul Wollerman, a field supervisor for Exxon/Mobil.
“And whatever equipment we need for the day, we have,” added Landreth.
It’s an ongoing effort for Exxon/Mobil in Patoka, where employees get away from their regular job responsibilities to do things that help their hometown.
About a dozen employees were working in the park last Friday, along with a couple of employees from Marathon Oil and contractors that Exxon/Mobil hired to help out.
Exxon/Mobil has been providing improvements in the community for more than five years, Wollerman said, with many of those within the park.
In past years, company employees have built a basketball court, installed bleachers in several areas in the park, reinforced the main pavilion and installed playground equipment.
Wollerman said that Exxon/Mobil makes such improvements as part of its way to support United Way. Donations are made to United Way organizations based on the amount of volunteer hours, with employees deciding which organizations receive donations on their behalf.
United Way has an annual Day of Caring, during which individuals do things to help others, and Wollerman said that the work done by Exxon/Mobil employees last week “was our Day of Caring.”
He said, “The whole company focuses on the communities where they are located, but it means more to our guys in Patoka.”
Landreth said being a part of the program that helps the community gives employees some satisfaction when they see people enjoying the improvements.
“For example, our handprints are all over that playground area,” Landreth said. “I get thanked by people all of the time.
“During the Fall Festival this year, someone standing by me pointed to the kids on the playground equipment and said, ‘You guys did that. We really appreciate what you and your company does for us.”
Wollerman added, “That’s what this is all about, what gets done for the park and community – it’s for the kids and the people who live here.”

Brian Skully of Heck Construction smooths out concrete in the bleacher area at the baseball diamond in Patoka City Park last Friday morning.

Paul Wollerman, a field supervisor for Exxon/Mobil, handles a saw.

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