Dean Health Plan employees join fellow volunteers to help make our community better. Throughout the year, our employees—your friends and neighbors—are busy helping out through a variety of activities and events.
Our values emphasize both community and stewardship. We cultivate relationships that inspire service with special concern for the poor and marginalized. What’s more, we deploy our resources responsibly so we best care for our environment.
At Badger Prairie County Park in Verona, staff handed out saplings to individuals and families who dropped by for their free pine tree on Earth Day in April, 2021. Healthy Parks, Healthy You is a collaboration between SSM Health, Dean Health Plan, the Foundation for Dane County Parks and Dane County Parks. The goal is to find new ways to engage people of all ages to improve physical and mental health through the use of Dane County's beautiful parks system.
We dedicate staff time, donations and company resources to support Second Harvest Food Bank. We do this through a variety of staff-led volunteer efforts where all funds raised support the goal of eliminating hunger in our community. The Health Plan and its employees have contributed more than $130,000 to Second Harvest since 2016.
The events include a gift basket silent auction, chili cook-off and a creativity event, called Paint Night. It's where a staffer with painting skills shares his knowledge with fellow employees, helping them to create their own masterpiece.
In spring of 2021, soon after vaccine eligibility expanded, we partnered with insured employer groups and school districts and facilitated mobile vaccination events, becoming the first health plan in southern Wisconsin to coordinate such efforts. We also helped to promote events that were open to the community for walk-ins and assisted with resources to support running the events.
We host blood drives at various locations in southern Wisconsin. Since 2017, our employees have donated nearly 78 gallons of blood.
Our employee diaper drive collected more than 10,000 diapers and 3,600 wipes in 2021 alone to benefit parents and babies in need who are served by our region's county agencies, pregnancy helplines or family resource centers throughout southern Wisconsin.
There is fierce competition among employees in our IT and Facilities teams to create the tastiest chili that fellow employees vote on with their contributions. Proceeds benefited the Ronald McDonald House Charities. We also collected items from the Ronald McDonald House wish list. Over the last 13 years, Dean Health Plan has raised more than $16,000 for the House.
