Great Lakes Insurance Services Group
It goes without saying that 2020 had its ups and most certainly its downs. We were hit with one of the worst pandemics since the Spanish Flu of 1918, businesses were shut down, borders were closed, quarantines were mandated. It has been a scary year, but we tried to find the silver lining and really appreciate all of you who stuck with us doing the hard times and hope that good times are ahead of us.
During this pandemic we were able to expand our operations and reinvest in the communities that have supported us, so we put together a little video and here is a summary of what we were able to do during this strange year. We hope you all remain safe our there and reach out to us if there is anything we can do to help you, your family and your loved ones.
- We tore down the old building next door to the Metropolitan building downtown to make room for new renovations and parking space for tenants we plan on having in the Metropolitan and General Tire buildings.
- During the month of November 2020 we handed off the new Building on the corner of 12th and Peach to Citizens Bank where they will now move their downtown operations.
- The West Seneca Branch of Great Lakes Insurance got a new home at 3626 Seneca Street, West Seneca, NY 14224. The new space gives this office room to grow and add around 20 additional staff to the branch!
- We purchased the Stephen M. Hawley Insurance Center in Batavia New York where we will offer the community access to our extensive list of carriers and we look forward to working with and learning from the Batavia Team up there!
- The renovation of the Warren office was finally completed after it was hit by a drunk driver in 2019. This renovation allows us to expand our operations in Warren as well. We doubled our square footage over there and look forward to adding members to an already excellent team.
- Speaking of that excellent team Tammie Sherrard, who now works primarily out of the Youngsville Office, won Warren’s Choice Insurance Agent for 2020! We are very proud of Tammie and happy to have her on the team to help service the Youngsville and Warren Areas while also training the new staff!
- Pete Zaphiris, agency principal and sole managing member of Great Lakes Insurance, chaired the Erie Heart Ball this year, unfortunately it had to be virtual. We did however get to meet a pretty inspiring young man named Maxton and we are better because of it!
- We were able to partner with local restaurants and get meals out to first responders and medical professionals as a thank you for being on the front lines of fighting this pandemic.
- Erie Pennsylvania voted us Erie’s Choice Insurance Agency for the 3rd time this year, we are proud to call Erie home and really cannot describe how appreciative we are of the overwhelming support this community gives us!
- We have begun the renovation of the old Citizens Bank building, which will become our new headquarters. We are excited to move downtown and get even more involved in all of the momentum going on downtown.
- Reached out to us and asked us to partner with them on a mural downtown, we were happy to oblige and think it turned out pretty awesome.