Sam Berman (left) presenting The Rough Notes Community Service Award
to Clay Snellings, CPCU, principal and chairman of the board of Snellings Walters,
and Vicki Nix, associate director, Georgia chapter, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Helping Cystic Fibrosis
patients achieve more tomorrows
By Alice Ashby Roettger
“When you think about community service, you think about giving others a chance to serve. We give over 300 people in our industry a chance to participate and support this cause,” says Clay Snellings, CPCU, principal and chairman of the board of Snellings Walters, an Atlanta insurance agency.
What is the cause that Clay took up and later enticed fellow members of the insurance industry to join? Let’s go back a bit in his life with wife Lori, his two sons, and daughter Emily, whose diagnosis with Cystic Fibrosis as an infant inspired their fight against the dreaded disease.
Cystic Fibrosis, or CF, is a gene defect that causes a sticky mucus substance to invade a body’s organs, particularly the lungs. Around 40,000 people in the United States are currently affected. For years, CF children rarely reached adulthood; and although there had been some breakthroughs, that’s what the Snellings family was forced to deal with at that time.
“Insure the Cure is the cornerstone of our company’s community service. We are so deeply committed to helping people with CF that we have integrated this cause into both our strategic plan and performance development plans.”
—Clay Snellings, CPCU
Principal and Chairman of the Board
Snellings Walters
Then, in 2011, a bit of ironic serendipity occurred when Clay called Chubb Senior Vice President Scott Dalton to cancel his attendance at an agents’ council meeting in Florida. It seems, he told Scott, his daughter, who had CF, had been hospitalized. Ding! Chubb was active with the national Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and participated in its Great Strides walk each year.
Would Snellings Walters like to participate? Of course.
That year, the Chubb and Snellings Walters fundraising garnered $35,000 in donations for the Atlanta Great Strides walk.
That bit of serendipity also served to combine with something that had been “niggling” in Clay’s mind since he had read Simon Sinek’s 2011 book Start With Why. One of Sinek’s core values was being “purposeful to serve others because of a higher calling.” That challenge meshed with Clay’s desire to not only serve but to provide others with the opportunity to serve, as well.
Could Atlanta’s entire insurance community be invited to participate in the effort to fight Cystic Fibrosis?
From that was born Insure the Cure, which has raised more than $4.2 million over the course of 14 years as it participates in Great Strides, a 5K walk in Atlanta that supports the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation—100% of the donations that Insure the Cure receives go to that national organization.
The work Clay and the agency have done to build awareness and raise funds for the fight against Cystic Fibrosis led to them being recognized as the 2025 Rough Notes Community Service Award winner. In addition to the agency receiving the award, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation received a $5,000 donation from Rough Notes.
Clay shares that “Insure the Cure is the cornerstone of our company’s community service. We are so deeply committed to helping people with CF that we have integrated this cause into both our strategic plan and performance development plans.” (These plans were shared in the Agency of the Month article in the February 2023 issue of Rough Notes magazine.)
“After all,” Clay adds, “Someone has to be the champion. I love seeing not only our employees but those who have agreed to partner with us be the changemakers for CF.”
He continues, “Look at what has been achieved over the past decade in science with CF. Just think about what is possible in the next 10 years.”
“Thanks to [Snellings Walters’] support, the CF Foundation has over 40-plus therapies in our drug development pipelines, including promising genetic therapies—our best hope for finding a cure.”
—Vicki Nix
Associate Director, Georgia Chapter
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Acknowledging the challenge
All of this has been done in the face of Cystic Fibrosis’s identity as an “orphan disease.” Researchers and pharmaceuticals must struggle with the practical dilemma of having to work with diseases that affect the greatest number of victims. That leaves diseases such as CF with fewer sources of support, the primary source now being the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which is a national leader in “venture” philanthropy, which funds both research and care.
Monies received by the Foundation have funded drug developments with biotech firms and helped develop therapies that serve to prolong life. CF life expectancies have more than doubled in the last quarter century because of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and its supporters. Other “orphan” disease philanthropic organizations now look to its business model.
“Look at what has been achieved over the past decade
in science with CF. Just think about what
is possible in the next 10 years.”
—Clay Snellings
According to Vicki Nix, associate director of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Georgia Chapter, “Snellings Walters formed this [Insure the Cure] alliance, joining together 50-plus insurance companies across the state of Georgia to fundraise and raise awareness for Cystic Fibrosis.
“They also serve as the Statewide Presenting Sponsor of the Great Strides program in Georgia, are recognized as one of the largest corporate fundraising teams and hold the title of National Corporate Champion.”
Continuing, she points out, “Thanks to their support, the CF Foundation has over 40-plus therapies in our drug development pipelines, including promising genetic therapies—our best hope for finding a cure.”
Molly Taggart, the CF Foundation’s senior vice president of field management, adds, “For the first time ever, a drug is now available to treat the underlying cause of CF in a small group of people who have the disease.” Thanking Snelling Waters, she says, “Together, we are transforming the face of this disease from one of despair to one of hope.”
Today, daughter Emily serves as an example of that hope. In her 20s now, she is a college graduate, participates in several types of physical activities including water skiing, has embarked on a career, and looks forward to adding tomorrows to that median life expectancy that has now reached 60. (This writer’s youngest daughter had a childhood church friend whose brother died at age six from a severe case of CF. That friend also deals with it but, at age 55, has a career and even was thrilled to hear from her doctors that she could have a child.)
What’s next for Insure the Cure? If Snellings Walters could persuade both city and other state agencies to walk the Walk, why not the entire insurance industry? Stay tuned.
For more information:
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
cff.org
The author
Alice Ashby Roettger is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis, Indiana. She also serves as an editorial assistant at Rough Notes magazine.
