Bank Independent, partners collect over 16,000 school supplies
Staff Reports
Over 16,000 school supplies were donated to Bank Independent’s second annual School Share drive to benefit local children.
Donations were collected at all Bank Independent locations, at School Share Pack the Bus events at two Walmart locations and through separate drives conducted by Shoals area United Methodist Churches and Texas Roadhouse in Florence.
Cash donations of $768 were collected between July 25 and Aug. 8 in addition to the 16,305 school supplies. More than 10,000 of these items were collected at four United Methodist Churches in Florence by stuffthebus.org, a charitable organization that travels across the country in a brightly colored bus to promote similar drives and benefit events.
“We expanded our School Share drive this year with special Pack the Bus events to collect even more supplies,” said Macke Mauldin, President of Bank Independent. “Once again we were overwhelmed by the generosity of folks in the communities we serve. We were especially touched by the extraordinary efforts of the folks at stuffthebus.org, whose drive contributed tremendously to our goal of benefitting local children.”
The Bank’s Pack the Bus events capped off the drive on Aug. 8. Thirty Bank Independent volunteers collected school supply donations from the public at Walmart on Hough Road in Florence and Walmart on Beltline Road in Decatur.
Bank Independent presented the proceeds of the School Share drives to partner organizations for immediate distribution to local children. These organizations include the Department of Human Resources of Franklin County, Committee on Church Cooperation in Morgan County, Department of Human Resources of Lawrence County, Department of Human Resources of Limestone County and Sidney’s Safe! Foundation in the Shoals. Donations collected for School Share by the United Methodist Churches for School Share were also delivered to Sidney’s Safe.
The Share drives are part of Bank Independent’s Helping Hands program, which also includes employee volunteer efforts, donations and sponsorships. Other Share drives include Shelter Share to benefit animal shelters, Food Share to collect nonperishable food items, and Toy Share to collect toys for children during the holiday season.
Helping Hands was inspired by employee requests for organized volunteer opportunities after the April 27, 2011 tornadoes. Since then, Bank Independent employees have donated over 2,500 hours in paid volunteer time to community efforts.
