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November Features
City Profiles Calendar Spirit’s guide to fun events! Entertainment Spirit’s guide to What’s New! Spirit's Travel Wizard Spirit's guide to the best Travel! Win Prizes Send Letters, Pictures or Advice. The best ones win prizes! Advertisement
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The Winning Spirit
Many of you probably spend a lot your work time in meetings. I am no different—with one big exception: I attend our Winning Spirit meetings on a regular basis. Every other month, I have the privilege to meet a remarkable group of our Employees who are being recognized for going above and beyond to assist our Customers and/or each other. The bi-monthly Winning Spirit Awards are among our Company’s highest Employee honors. Winning Spirit recipients are nominated by their Coworkers, so the esteem and admiration with which their Coworkers hold them is pretty obvious. At the ceremony, each Employee’s Vice President attends, and each recipient is featured in an article in our Employee magazine, LUVLines. Presiding over these ceremonies is one of the coolest and most rewarding things I get to do in my job. My favorite part of each event is meeting the Employees and hearing their stories. Whether it is an Employee rushing to the assistance of a victim in an overturned truck, a Reservations Sales Agent preventing a child abduction, or Flight Attendants and their Supervisors sharing hearts with a Customer on the way to identify her son’s body, I am touched and humbled by their stories of compassion, courage, and initiative. These are special People, and this is a special month of thanks. Among the reasons I am thankful this year: 1) The election on Nov. 4. Our right to choose a new president in an orderly and peaceful way is one of many things we take for granted. 2) Those who have served in uniform. Veterans Day (Nov. 11) is an opportunity to reflect upon the bravery and service of those who have guarded our liberty. 3) The Warrior Spirit, Servant’s Heart, and Fun-LUVing attitudes of the 34,000-plus Employees that make Southwest Airlines the best airline in the world. 4) The love of family and friends. 5) The quintessential American holiday, Thanksgiving Day. Even during the dark days of 1863 during the Civil War, President Lincoln found much for which to be thankful: “The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.” On behalf of the Southwest Family, I hope your own year has seen fruitful fields and healthful skies. Gary KellyCHAIRMAN AND CEO SOUTHWEST AIRLINES Click to read the Southwest Blog, Nuts About Southwest
OPERATION: KICK
TAIL RECOGNITION • JUTTA, who works on the Ramp in San Antonio, knows that our soldiers get lonely during the Holidays. Last year, she “adopted” a unit of 218 Marines and made them each a stocking, filled the stocking with goodies, and purchased 436 Christmas cards so each Marine could have a card from not just her, but two Southwest Employees. She has also knitted for Marines serving in Afghanistan and for cancer patients at home. • While standing in line at the grocery store, Phoenix Reservations Sales Agent MARIA heard a muffled scream coming from around the corner. As she edged near the women’s restroom, she heard faint noises then the scream of a girl. Maria started pounding on the locked door, and an unknown man rushed out past her. Although she was unable to keep up with the fleeing man, her description of him helped the police in arrest the failed kidnapper. |
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