Community supports local children through Bank Independent School Share Drive
The sixth annual Bank Independent School Share drive conducted from July 8-26 culminated with a financial impact to local communities of $50,187, according to the final tally by Bank Independent officials.
School supplies were accepted at all 28 Bank Independent sales offices and at the one-day collection events held at Office Depot in Florence and Walmart locations in Florence and Huntsville. Because of the generous response from local citizens, 20,667 items were collected and distributed to partner organizations, along with the Bank Independent Smart Swipe pledge-match totaling $9,421.65.
The school supplies and cash donations will be distributed through local organizations in each market – through the Department of Human Resources in Franklin County.
“We’ve conducted the School Share drive for six years now, but this is the first time we’ve added the Smart Swipe pledge-match,” said Rick Wardlaw, CEO of Bank Independent. “At Bank Independent, our mission is to make a positive difference. We wanted to honor the positive difference customers make to their own financial well-being when they practice healthy savings habits by pledging to match their savings and donate the total to School Share.
“When we pull together, small change can affect big change in the community.”
Smart Swipe is a savings plan that rounds up change from Bank Independent Debit Card purchases to the next dollar and deposits the difference into another BI account of the customer’s choosing. Bank Independent pledged to match customers’ Smart Swipe savings up to a total of $10,000 between July 24-26. Over the three-day period, customers saved $9,421.65 – meaning the same amount contributed to the School Share total.
School Share is part of Bank Independent’s Helping Hands program, which also includes employee volunteer efforts, donations and sponsorships. Other Share drives include Toy Share to collect toys for children during the holiday season; Shelter Share to benefit animal shelters; and Food Share to collect non-perishable food items.
