First Bank’s DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) Committee recently spearheaded a project to help support students and teachers in our communities. Through the DonorsChoose fundraising platform, the committee selected 22 classroom projects for First Bank to donate $10,000 towards!
DonorsChoose empowers public school teachers from across the county to request much-needed materials for their students and have these projects funded by donations. Members of the DEI committee chose different projects to donate to classrooms in historically underfunded schools. Some of the items that the donation funded include music stands, winter hats and gloves, healthy snacks, culturally diverse classroom library books, recorders for the school newspaper, and so much more! The teachers and students were thrilled to see their projects funded and having the needs of their classrooms fulfilled.
“What a wonderful feeling! This is a hard time of the year, so receiving these resources for my students is a dream come true. Thank you for believing in my teaching goals. “
“The DEI group enjoyed choosing projects to fund. It meant a lot to us to enable First Bank to help out this way,” said Michael Dove, a DEI group representative. He continued, “Also, the platform made it real easy for us to help contribute to students and classrooms in need.”
“Thank you so much for your donations and generosity. My students will be so happy to have books in our class library in which they can see characters that look like them.”
First Bank is all about community. “Giving is living,” said First Bank President and CEO Pat Ryan. “We are proud of the communities we work and live in, and we must all work together to help raise up those are experiencing hard times.”