IICF Club100 in Hollywood Recognized Insurance Pros for Charity

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation’s Club100 event at the Avalon Hollywood in Hollywood, Calif., on March 30 drew more than 200 industry professionals to help raise funds for charity.

The annual IICF event recognized Frank Robitaille, executive vice president of insurance agency Armstrong/Robitaille/Riegle, with the Golden Horizon Award.

Robitaille has served as a member of the board of directors of The Orangewood Children’s Foundation and the advisory board of the Child Abuse Prevention Center. He and his wife Gale also endowed the Robitaille Chair of Risk Management and Insurance for the Center for Insurance Studies at Cal State Fullerton.

He was one of five Certified Property Casualty Underwriters that founded Insuring the Children, a nonprofit group that helps raise awareness of child abuse and neglect. The group provides support for prevention and care programs throughout Southern California.

He was presented the award by Jim Darling, senior vice president and California branch manager for Chubb.

After accepting the award Robitaille said that raising money to help children leaves those involved with a good feeling, and that the insurance industry is in a good – if not unique – spot to help out because future returns are virtually assured.

“I wonder if we realize how good we have it in the insurance industry?” he said. “There are laws requiring you to buy insurance.”

Recognition was also given to the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, which was IICF’s featured nonprofit.

Alan Hostrup, president and CEO of the group, thanked IICF for its efforts to help boost literacy among inner-city youth, and he noted that the learning gap between these kids and children from more affluent areas grows each year.

“This gap gets bigger and bigger,” he said.

IICF Western Zone Chair Steve Marohn, who is senior vice president and Western zone officer for CNA, gave Hostrup’s group a $25,000 grant to promote early childhood literacy.

IICF has teamed up with Sesame Street to promote early childhood literacy as well with events like “Every Day is Reading and Writing Day.”

Marohn also mentioned that IICF’s annual “Week of Giving” is coming up Oct. 10-17. This is an industry-wide volunteer event in which teams of insurance industry volunteers provide three or more hours of volunteer service at neighborhood and community nonprofit organizations throughout the week. Since 2001, the event has generated more than 166,000 hours of volunteer service by engaging thousands of volunteers in 30-plus states.

Among the groups to benefit from the March event is the Center for Insurance Studies at Cal State Fullerton. Chairing the event was Jon Axel, senior vice president of Hub International Services Inc. Sponsors included: Chubb; Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Insurance Brokers of California; CNA; Topa Insurance Co.; AmWins Insurance Brokerage of California; Hub International; East West Insurance Services; Narver Insurance; Robert E. Harris Insurance Agency; Farmers Insurance; Aetna; Allstate; Great American Insurance Group.