Excellence in Community Service
Sara Mays, former Director of Loss Prevention Stores and Training, Barnes & Noble
As a seasoned veteran of the loss prevention industry, Mays has shown excellence both with her performance in the stores and in the community. Following an unfortunate accident involving a coworker’s toddler son drowning in a swimming pool, Mays decided to take action and make a difference.
“Drowning is the number-one cause of accidental deaths among children ages one to four, and unfortunately, not every family can afford to send their children to adequate swimming lessons,” said Mays. “This is why my colleagues and I founded Strokes for Strokes, a charitable organization providing swimming scholarships to children in need.”
Through an annual golf tournament, funds are raised to support swimming lessons at community pools to help avoid similar incidents moving forward. Since the inception of the program in 2013, hundreds of disadvantaged children have received swim lessons.
“We hope not only to continue helping children learn to swim in future years, but also to inspire retailers and their employees to start their own community-focused projects and identify creative ways of giving back,” added Mays.
Nominations Are Encouraged
The LPM team is privileged to have a front-row seat to the very best in the loss prevention industry, providing a unique opportunity to present positive, productive ways to promote loss prevention, build successful and constructive partnerships, educate and inform the LP community, and support the thought leadership that drives us forward.
The LP Magazine “Magpie” Awards are a means to celebrate industry accomplishments on an ongoing basis, recognizing the loss prevention professionals, teams, solution providers, law enforcement partners, and others that demonstrate a stellar contribution to the profession. Sara Mays is among our May–June 2017 recipients.
We want this to be your program. Those of you working as LP practitioners witness these exceptional performances on a regular and ongoing basis, and we strongly encourage you to provide us with nominees for each of the award categories. We encourage creative nominations and want the program to cast a positive light on the many tremendous contributions of the loss prevention community. Nominations can be submitted via email to excellence (at) LPportal (dot) com.
Find out who else has been recognized in the May–June 2017 issue – check out “LPM “Magpie” Awards: Applauding Excellence.”