It is the simple things, like Baby Ruth bars or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, that we take for granted.

At least that is what Carrie Hassen and Brenda Beauregard have learned in the past couple of years. Their sons are serving in Afghanistan.

Brenda Beauregard, left, and Carrie Hassen stand before a stack of boxes headed to men and women in the armed forces.

“You don’t realize — we have a store where you can go get anything you want, and they don’t have what we have,” Hassen said. “It’s something so trivial, but they’re protecting our lives and you want them to have everything.”

The two were surrounded by boxes Friday morning, stuffed with anything from socks and soap to Stephen King novels and notepads. Their employer, Medical Mutual, was preparing to ship off the last supply of care packages to employees’ relatives in the military.

Over the past two and a half weeks, the Toledo office collected enough dry foods, toiletries, playing cards and books to assemble 90 care packages. The treats travel to 11 people overseas and eight on bases in the country, said Mark Tooman, a communication manager for Medical Mutual.

Gazing into the parking lot through conference room windows sparked the idea. Senior Vice President Gary Thieman saw a man in military uniform step out of his car and he wondered how many Medical Mutual employees had relatives serving the country. He decided the company ought to do something to recognize them, he said.

A few weeks, rounds of email messages and some busy assembly line action later, Thieman watched the last of the packages get ready for takeoff.

“It was neat to see it all come together from a casual comment in a conference room to something that is hopefully doing some good,” he said.

Family members have already received the first round of goods. Hassen said her son called her to tell her that he and his fellow servicemen were able to share bags of candy —a rare treat for a base that does not have many choices in terms of sweets.

Both she and Beauregard never expected to become military mothers. Hassen’s son, Kevin, made the decision when he was 17, and she signed his paperwork kicking and screaming along the way, she said. On his 18th birthday, Kevin left for boot camp. Now he’s 24 and repairs radar equipment in Afghanistan, having been in Iraq prior.

Beauregard’s son, Ryan, was into paint balling in high school. Now, he is 20 years old and on the front lines of war.

“We’ve been learning a lot,” she said. “He always thought everyone should do something for their country.”

She’s learned that all too often people who don’t have relatives overseas seem to forget what is happening every day, she said. And she’s learned that every sound bite in the news about war or potential war sends her mind into a worrying state. Sometimes, she said, she just has to turn it off.

The Medical Mutual care package program is another way of communicating with loved ones, and feeling joy that they were able to send goods that could make one day just a little better. It also makes the two proud of the company they work for, Beauregard and Hassen said.

Tags: Brenda Beauregard, Caitlin McGlade, Carrie Hassen, Gary Thieman, Mark Tooman, Medical Mutual, military care packages

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10th, 2012 at 2:30 am and is filed under Community, Military, Philanthropy.
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Gary Thieman has become the face of Medical Mutual in the company’s latest advertising campaign, launched to increase its brand awareness and business in Northwest Ohio.

“I really don’t covet my picture being in newspaper ads and my voice on radio but people really seem to like the campaign as we’ve had some positive comments about it,” Thieman said.

“We’ve had a pretty darn good year in 2011, one of the best we’ve ever had, and I’d like to think some of it is the result of the campaign,” he said.

Official year-end results for 2011 will not be available until later in January, said Thieman, senior vice president of sales and customer relations for the Northwest Ohio region for Medical Mutual.

After a strategic review of what Medical Mutual is in Northwest Ohio, the company began looking for a strong leader for the region, according to Jared Chaney, executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer for Medical Mutual of Ohio.

“Gary is the one we found and we could not have made a better choice,” Chaney said.

The company had not done a lot of advertising previously and it wanted to establish Thieman as the face of Medical Mutual in the Northwest Ohio region, Chaney said.

Gary Thieman

The campaign was developed to distinguish Medical Mutual from its competitors as a company that takes a consultant’s approach to solve problems and meet the customers’ needs rather than just selling products.

“We decided to put Gary in a position where he’s having a conversation about what real businesspeople have on their mind about health insurance. Now, the conversation will change where Gary will be listening to a client,” Chaney said.

Medical Mutual sells health insurance directly to some businesses but much of it is sold through brokers and independent agents.

“The message is that we want to be helpful to them and their clients,” Thieman said.

About 60 percent of companies renew their contracts for insurance around the first of the year. Thieman reported that Medical Mutual has experienced good results with renewals for Jan. 1, 2012, when compared to previous years.

As one of four senior vice presidents in the sales and customer relations division, he is responsible for all sales regions in Ohio, Indiana, Georgia and South Carolina, small group business and expansion in other states.

Thieman’s insurance career began at Medical Mutual’s predecessor, Blue Cross of Northwest Ohio in 1971. He also worked for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kentucky, now Anthem BCBS, rising to executive vice president.

In 1989, Thieman joined Findley Davies Inc, a human resources consulting firm in Toledo, where he was employed for more than 20 years. He was a member of its board of directors and management committee, national health and group benefits consulting practice, and led its business development and marketing efforts.

Thieman said he consulted with large companies on health insurance and continued his relationship with Medical Mutual and businesspeople in Toledo during that time.

He returned to Medical Mutual and now has a new office in the distinctive building on Sylvania Avenue that was designed by the SSOE Group and built by Rudolph | Libbe.

“We’re still tweaking it,” said Thieman, who said they are creating a more welcoming entrance with a new first floor lobby designed by SSOE.

He is the immediate past president of the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce and currently serves on its executive committee.

He graduated from Start High School and the University of Toledo, where he met his wife Cheryl. Both born and raised in Toledo, they have been married for more than 40 years, have three children and six grandchildren.

Tags: Gary Thieman, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Rudolph | Libbe, SSOE, Start High School, Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce, University of Toledo

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Community, Health Care.
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