Steele donates $10,000 to St. Mary Central School
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- Steele Insurance donated $10,000 Thursday to St. Mary Central School in St. Clairsville during the insurance agency's 75th anniversary celebration.
The donation will go toward the school's capital campaign, which will help renovate and expand the school.
Matthew Steele, president of Steele Insurance, presented a giant mock check to the Rev. Thomas Chillog, the school's pastor, and Principal Angel Glitch.
"We've been blessed with the success of the agency over the years, and we wanted to share that with the school," Steele said.
The school has been open at its current location, 226 W. Main St., since 1958.
Steele said that after 65 years, the school is in need of renovations and updates including a new roof and new windows.
"Plus, we have an ambitious plan to add new classrooms and facilities onto the school," Steele said.
Steele said that the project is projected to cost about $7 million in total.
"With our 75th anniversary for the agency, we felt that we've been blessed to have the ability to do it and want to share these blessings with our faith family partners here," Steele said.
Steele said his children currently attend St. Mary's Central.
Steele said he wants to raise awareness and rally support for the school's project.
Chillog said the school will be sending out letters and information packets soon with more information about the project and how people can make donations.
He said that the school has already received $1.2 million in pledges and will continue to seek donations over the next few years with the help of the Diocese of Steubenville.
Glitch said she was very grateful for the donation and community support.
For more information or to donate to the school, call 740-695-3189 or email angel.glitch@omeresa.net.
During Thursday's 75th anniversary celebration, Steele also honored his parents, Rich and Barb Steele, who owned the company before passing it on to him. Matthew Steele said that his parents guided the organization for about 32 years.
"I was president, but she (Barb Steele) was boss," Rich Steele said.
Matthew Steele said the insurance agency's conference room would be renamed the "Rich and Barb Steele Conference Room." He also hung a portrait of his parents in the conference room.
Matthew Steele said that his parents never had a retirement party, so he wanted to honor his parents during the 75th anniversary celebration.
"We started in our basement," Rich Steele said.
"We did, our first office was in our basement with a door for a table," Barb Steele said.
Barb Steele said that Matthew Steele wanted to be an insurance agent since he was about 8 or 9 years old. She said that Matthew often played with his older brother, Brian Steele who currently works as a project manager at a construction company.
"They would play with their Matchboxes, and Brian would be driving the construction trucks and building the buildings with Legos, and Matt was running the construction company office doing the invoices on the little Commodore computer," she said.
Matthew Steele also recognized his current staff during the celebration.
"Of course, I need to appreciate the current team that we have in place that are carrying on the tradition and keeping everything moving for you and who really helps put together this 75th anniversary for us," he said.
He also said that he wanted to show his gratitude to the community.
"We've done our best to get 75 small pumpkins delivered around the community from Barnesville to Wheeling over the past week to clients, chambers of commerce and places like that," Matthew Steele said.
Steele Insurance also started collecting donations for The Food Pantry of St. Clairsville. Anyone who wishes to donate food and nonperishables can drop them off at the office from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the insurance office, located at 48259 National Road in St. Clairsville.