It was all smiles around Valero this week and let us tell you why.

Janie Johnson, CEO of the United Way of Mid and South Jefferson County, was dropping by to meet with a hundred or so of her best friends.

They were among the 800+ employees at Valero, hard-working men and women whose efforts help make America’s energy position stronger and whose paychecks help keep this community’s economy humming. We’d be a whole lot worse off without them.

But the men and women of Valero do much more than tend to their own interests and the interests of their employer. These men and women are largely single-minded in the pursuit of strengthening the United Way here and making ours a better and kinder Mid and South Jefferson County.

They did it by generating a United Way campaign that raised $1,214,270 — a ton of money and perhaps three-quarters of the total United Way hopes to raise for 2019. This was the second consecutive year that Valero employees passed the million-dollar benchmark — no one else has done it once — which was accomplished by some 78 percent of employees pledging an average donation of almost a thousand dollars each. Mark Skobel, vice president and general manager, said 109 employees donated some 2.5 percent of their pay, reaching what the plant calls “superhero” status. Valero itself has a match component that helped boost their employees to the second, consecutive record-setting total.

Port Arthur Mayor Derrick Freeman — his “Pops” worked at the plant for more than three decades — talked about the progress the city has made since August 2017. That was when Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey dropped up to 60 inches of rain on our community, putting it largely under water. It’s been an uphill climb since. Valero people know that well. Many employees there lost vehicles or homes in the storm, but still they give to help others through the United Way and its 22 member agencies — many of which were represented at the Tuesday afternoon gathering.

Freeman said the workforce has always been known for its generosity, which made his father proud to work there. He’d tell his son his co-workers worked hard all day and night and “were still able to give back to the community.”

No wonder, then, that Skobel talked with pride about the people at Valero — he’s a “newbie,” he said, barely arriving before the storm. But he learned quickly how compassionate Valero workers are.

Johnson talked about that, too, in brief remarks, lauding the workers’ campaign for demonstrating compassion through action. It’s not like that everywhere, she said, adding that she loves to tell other United Way offices around Texas about what happens here.

So do we.