Jay Blake’s Follow A Dream Foundation
Written by: Josh Schaad
Over the past several years, Property & Inland Marine Claims has made it a priority to share our goals, results, and initiatives with everyone to make sure it’s clear that we are here to serve our insureds, not only in handling particular claims, but with the relationships we build with our agents and insureds. In furthermore of that goal, a few years back, a few of us P&IM Claims people met with one of our underwriters, Greg Rogala, and our Drag Race Program agent, Bill Horton, at the Summer Nationals in Indianapolis (one of the top NHRA drag racing events in the country). Not only did we spend some quality time building our relationship with Bill, but we also met a half dozen of our mutual clients/insureds that loved seeing our interest in their passion. One of our insureds we met was Jay Blake, the Head Create Chief of Follow A Dream Racing.
It’s hard for me to put into words the inspiring story of Jay, so, if you can find 5 minutes to listen, please do:
Not long after meeting Jay, we received a claim for his trailer that had been hit by a tree. Both his personal and claim experiences with P&IM Claims motivated him to send an email that said: “Since I have had coverage, I have slept much better! When there have been issues that have occurred, resolving them was easy and quick with Bill Horton (Jay’s agent) and Mike Barnett’s (P&IM) help. These guys are really an asset to your company, and we’ve become good friends. It’s rare and inspiring for someone to demonstrate this level of customer relationship-building.”
Jay had such a great experience with Great American that he requested to speak to the entire Cincinnati P&IM team and bring along his alcohol funny car to display. His presentation on the power of positive attitude, self-determination, the importance of education, and pursuing your dreams with passion was inspiring to all and he was showcased in our corporate newsletter in June 2018.
Follow A Dream was established in 1999 and is a non-profit 501(C)3 organization with the mission of demonstrating the Power of Positive Thinking, Self-Determination, and Teamwork. The organization’s message is uniquely delivered through NHRA drag racing as its medium. Jay uses his travels with the racing team to share his powerful personal experience with students and other organizations.
In my private life, I love working on/collecting classic muscle cars. I recently purchased a 1970 Chevelle and, after researching all the numbers on the vehicle, I realized it was a rare model worth much more than what I paid for. It was then that God told me that I was going to be giving the profits of the sale of that vehicle to charity and one of those charities would be to my hero, Jay Blake, and Follow a Dream.
To learn more about Jay Blake’s story and all the great he does, check out this featured article.