When Sam Sand was teaching and coaching high school wrestling, he watched many of his family and friends go into the insurance industry, and when he was ready to change careers, he followed them. “I feel like there are a lot of parallels with education and coaching in this job,” he says. “I have a large team so I do a lot of training with them, and then I’m also educating my clients.”
After working as an agent for State Farm for five years, Sam’s been running his own agency with the company for the past six years. Initially based in South Minneapolis, the award-winning Sam Sand State Farm Insurance Agency is now in Bloomington.
For him, teaming up with this particular insurance company was an easy decision. “I believe State Farm is the best,” he says. “I spent time talking to people and looking at a lot of different options, and no one had a bad thing to say about State Farm. It actually insures one out of every four cars in the country.”
He enjoys being able to have a large team and give them the opportunity to follow in his footsteps. “I also like having a local presence in the community. I come from a small town of about 1,200 people in North Dakota, where it seems everybody knows everybody. So, I’m just trying to create that small town feel in a really big city.”
Sam also strongly believes in giving back, both on his own and with his team. “I feel really lucky and grateful that I have a job that I can make a good living at, and a lot of people have helped me out, trained me and given back to me.”
A wrestler when he was in high school, he now volunteers as a wrestling coach at Edina High School. He’s also involved in Best Christmas Ever, a nonprofit organization that helps families who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own.
The organization was founded in 2010 by Don Liimatainen, a dad living in Minnesota who was battling ulcerative colitis. One year, looking at the empty space under the Christmas tree, he didn’t know how to tell his young son that Santa wasn’t coming. When his mother and other relatives showed up on Christmas Eve with bags of gifts, he was deeply touched and immensely relieved, and this unexpected blessing turned their family’s possibly worst Christmas ever into their best Christmas ever.
Don then wanted to pay that feeling forward, and with the help of family and friends, the number of families they have touched has expanded all across the United States, Canada and even to Costa Rica.
“This will be our fourth year working with Best Christmas Ever,” says Sam. “In my office, we pick a family local to the area that gets nominated by this organization, and then we raise money and surprise them around Christmastime.”
Since there weren’t any families nominated in Bloomington last year, the team chose one in Hastings. “It was a young married couple with a two or three-year-old son and the dad was in a motorcycle accident and became disabled,” he says. “We ended up raising about $10,000 for them and around ten toys for their child.”
They’ve stayed in touch, and are happy to say the father is now back to working part-time and doing fairly well.
Raising the money for these families is a group effort. “We ask our clients for donations and we also set up a Christmas tree in the office with gift tags of items needed,” says Sam. “The other businesses we work with like our bank donates and other State Farm agents help out too.” The agency also hosts charity golf events to raise funds.
“Basically, instead of just selling insurance in December, we're trying to sell the fact that these families need help. I think it's a nice way to give back to the community, and it's also a way for us to step back, slow down and make sure we're helping someone else out rather than just trying to chase a number all day.”
Wrapping the presents collected has become a holiday tradition for him and his wife, Caroline. “We have a gift-wrapping party every year with my team, and our family and friends, and we play holiday games,” he says. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
For the couple, getting together with family is also a big part of the holidays. “But probably our favorite thing is getting our stockings on Christmas morning,” says Sam.
If people are interested in getting involved with Best Christmas Ever, they can contact Sam at the office at 612-351-3848, or go to his Instagram page @statefarm_sam for a link to donate. Information can also be found at BCEMovement.org.
8714 Lyndale Ave. S | 612-351-3848 | Statefarm.com/agent/us/mn/bloomington/samuel-sand