“Friday Night Lights” may be just another TV show for some folks around the country. But in Louisiana, stadium lights are the ubiquitous and instantly-recognizable bat-signal summoning families, friends and neighbors to coalesce around a shared passion.
Where high school football may be a detached afterthought in some American cities—an event primarily attended by cool kids and proud parents—in parishes across the Sportsman’s Paradise, high school football is a centerpiece of daily life for everyone.
From players and coaches to the cheer squad and band, to the local grocer and mechanic down the street, a football game is the heartbeat of communities across Louisiana.
If high school football is the heartbeat, then perhaps it’s not a stretch to say the Louisiana Farm Bureau Insurance (LFBI) is the backbone.
Formed by farmers for farmers to meet the insurance needs that weren’t being met by other insurance companies, LFBI is as much a fabric of a community as anyone else.
“Our agents live and work in every parish,” says Avery Davidson, Information and PR Director for the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, the parent organization of LFBI. “So when something requires a claim, you aren’t calling someone elsewhere. You’re calling someone right there in your community, someone who knows the community, who sees you at church and at the high school football game every week.”
It’s this kind of relationship and genuine investment in the day-to-day lives of neighbors that sets the LFBI apart from other insurance agencies. It’s this connection to those who literally till the soil that makes a partnership with YurView & high school football a natural fit.
LFBI is an official Louisiana sponsor of GameTime – YurView’s live high school football coverage. At the end of each season, LFBI recognizes the top high school athlete, as well as other outstanding performers.
“We have a long-time partnership [with LFBI],” says YurView Market Manager Eric Coleman “But they are not only behind high school athletics. They are involved with schools themselves because those are their communities. Louisiana Farm Bureau Insurance is a fixture.”
Davidson echoes this sentiment when clarifying that it’s the parent organization (the Farm Bureau Federation) providing academic support in the form of standards-based curriculum that incorporates agriculture in Math, Science and English classes. “We don’t want kids to think chocolate milk comes from brown cows!” Davidson said. True enough.
This academic engagement is another layer of community involvement that makes a difference in people’s lives, but it’s the symbiotic partnership between LFBI and YurView that really lifts all boats.
Davidson says he’s proud of the partnership with YurView.
“The partnership certainly brings exposure to our agents who are featured weekly during each of the games,” Davidson says. “And ultimately, it’s just a way to support football and have people meet the agents in their communities if they haven’t before.”
When it comes to a healthy relationship, the Louisiana Farm Bureau Insurance company’s partnership with YurView is as natural as football on Friday nights. So cue up the band, go deep for the pass, and take your seats in the bleachers because under the bright lights is where Louisiana communities grow stronger side-by-side.
