Something for the weekend: Winery and brewery The Village Vintner has announced it will be running a fundraiser to support a valued employee and her family.
The Illinois-based beverage business discovered that its assistant manager’s financial and overall wellbeing was suffering due to emergency medical issues experienced by her husband. In addition to the loss of income due to his inability to work, the medical bills faced by the couple had already reached $21,000 (£16,826.67) by the time this was reported by The Northwest Herald on 18 September 2019, with more expected yet to come.
Aware that a member of staff and her family were facing considerable financial pressures, in addition to emotional stress, The Village Vintner will be holding a fundraising event on 29 September 2019, from 5pm to 9pm, at its location in Algonquin, Illinois.
The event, Pasta with a Purpose, will see the organisation’s chef and sous chef set up a pasta station for guests to choose their ideal combination of noodles, sauce, vegetables and protein, as well as pre-prepared dishes and a salad bar. The employer is also organising live music and a raffle, and is asking prospective attendees to buy tickets at a rate of $25 (£20.03) for adults and $15 (£12.02) for children. The Village Vintner is also accepting donations from businesses and individuals.
Janet Westberg, general manager at The Village Vintner, told The Northwest Herald: “[This employee is] the first person to make sure we have a balloon, or funny pair of glasses to wear on our birthday. She kind of pulls everybody else together to make sure we, as managers, have Christmas gifts and stuff of that nature.
“We knew that [she] was losing a lot of income. We knew that we needed to step in. That we needed to, as a family, pull together.”
Here at Employee Benefits, we can only imagine the effect that having unexpected hospital bills on top of caring for a sick loved one would have on our wellbeing. We think this is a great example of an employer making sure the value of its staff is clear…