Special donation amount commemorates the Bank’s 150th Anniversary

FLORENCE—In its 21st year, Florence Bank’s Customers’ Choice Community Grants Program awarded $150,000 to 46 area nonprofits in honor of the bank’s 150th anniversary.

“I know the total we announced we would award this year was $125,000, but I feel like $150,000 would be a more appropriate amount to celebrate the 150 years that Florence Bank has been in existence,” said President and CEO Matt Garrity in leading his first Customers’ Choice celebration Tuesday, May 16. 

“It’s amazing to see so many community organizations being recognized, and the fact that the recognition comes from Florence Bank customers in the form of votes is really special,” he added. “So, let’s all raise our glasses and toast the good things that have been around for a long time.” 

Garrity handed checks to 46 nonprofit leaders across the region, awarding 13 with $5,000 gifts—the most ever granted in 21 years—and presenting $500 surprise awards to 10 organizations that fell just short of the required 50-vote count.

These organizations received $5,000 grants: Dakin Humane Society, Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Amherst Survival Center, Friends of the Williamsburg Library, Northampton Survival Center, Goshen Firefighter’s Association, Inc., Cancer Connection, Manna Soup Kitchen, It Takes a Village, Friends of Forbes Library, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Our Lady of the Hills Parish, and Friends of Lilly Library.

And these organizations received unexpected $500 awards: the Children’s Advocacy Center of Hampshire County, Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity, Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen & Pantry, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Holyoke, Gray House, Holyoke Community College Foundation, Mental Health Association, Inc., Springfield Rescue Mission, The Parish Cupboard, and Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control & Adoption Center.

As always, the festivities at Look Park were celebratory as nonprofit leaders expressed their gratitude for Florence Bank as a community partner.

“This grant will do us a world of good,” said Kevin McKinney, president of the Northampton Football League, which received an award for the first time in the amount of $2,545. “We will likely use the funds for new shoulder pads or other safety equipment. The money will help us keep kids safe and healthy. That’s our main focus at Northampton Football.”

McKinney added that he believes Florence Bank is the local bank that’s most involved in the community. 

Kristin DeBoer, executive director of Kestrel Land Trust, an organization based in Amherst that has a mission to conserve, care for, and connect to the forest land and river ways of the Connecticut River of Massachusetts, also expressed appreciation.

“We’re grateful for engagement by local business leaders such as Florence Bank,” she said. “Conservation matters to everyone. It makes sense to have local businesses engaged in the mission of local land conservation.”

Kestrel has received a Florence Bank grant eight times and accepted $3,427 this year. DeBoer said in the past, the funds have been used for programming that allows urban youth to access conservation land and make it relevant and real to them as a place they can enjoy. 

This year, the grant money will be used to help in gathering community input on how to revitalize an urban forest park in Holyoke, called Anniversary Hill. The natural park has a significant trail network that could be improved and enjoyed by nearby residents and families in Holyoke.

Florence Bank’s community grants program is an annual offering founded in 2002 and, through it, Florence Bank customers are invited to vote for their favorite local nonprofit in hopes it will receive a share of grant funding.

Voting takes place all year long, online at www.florencebank.com/vote and in bank branches, and each customer has only one vote. To qualify for a community grant, organizations must receive at least 50 votes. In 2022, roughly 7,000 votes were cast, making 36 nonprofits eligible for a grant; the other 10 funded organizations were invited to attend the event and were surprised with their $500 award.

Over the past 21 years, Florence Bank has donated a total of $1.5 million to 165 organizations.

At the 21st annual event, Northampton Youth Football was the only organization to receive funds for the first time, and four awards went to organizations in Hampden County, where Florence Bank now has three branches and has established a presence as a good neighbor. 

Organizations receiving awards range from police, fire, library, and school groups to nonprofits that provide food, shelter or support to people living with a serious illness or disability. These other organizations received an award: 

Williamsburg Firefighter Association, $4,701; Bernese Auction Rescue Coalition / BARC, Inc., $4,652; Easthampton Community Center, $4,309; Friends of M.N. Spear Memorial Library, $4,064; Northampton Neighbors, $4,064; Springfield Shriners Hospitals for Children, $3,917; Grow Food Northampton, Inc., $3,819; Amherst Neighbors, $3,721; Smith Vocational High School PTO, $3,721; Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, $3,624; Performing Arts Charter School, $3,575; Therapeutic Equestrian Center, $3,575; Edward Hopkins Educational Foundation, $3,330; Northampton Community Music Center, $3,232; Safe Passage, $3,134; Empty Arms Bereavement Support, $2,987; New Hingham Elementary School PTO, $2,987; R.K. Finn Ryan Road School, $2,889; Whole Children, $2,693; Belchertown K-9, $2,595; and Tapestry $2,448.

Visit florencebank.com/winners-list to download the complete list of grant recipients.

Florence Bank has branches in Amherst, Belchertown, Chicopee, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Northampton, Williamsburg, West Springfield, Springfield, and it is headquartered in Florence.

About Florence Bank

Florence Bank is a mutual savings bank chartered in 1873. Currently, the bank serves the Pioneer Valley through 12 full-service branch locations in Florence, Northampton, Easthampton, Williamsburg, Amherst, Hadley, Belchertown, Granby, Chicopee, West Springfield, and Springfield. Additionally, it offers 25 ATMs and a wide range of financial services, including investment management through FSB Financial Group (FSBFG) to consumers and businesses. Florence Bank is consistently voted best local bank by the readers of the Valley Advocate and the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

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LACONIA —As the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction kicks off this week live at the Belknap Marketplace and online, its leaders offer thanks to dozens of area sponsors who have helped make the event possible. 

Hannaford is the event’s Presenting Sponsor and MB Tractor is the OverBid Sponsor for the Week. 

Other sponsors include: Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, Bayside Rentals, Belknap Landscaping, Belknap Marketplace, Belknap Tree and Plant, Belmont Self Storage, Bonnette, Page & Stone, Body Covers, Casella, Children’s Dentistry, Cisneros Realty Group, Dairy Queen, Eastern Dragon Karate, EPTAM, The Foundry Financial Group, Franklin Savings Bank, Gator Graphix, Gilford Hills Tennis and Fitness, Granite State Glass, Harbor Group, Hi Gloss Boat Restoration, Huot Career and Technical Center, Integration Partners, Irwin Marine, Juggernaut Fitness, Meredith Insurance Agency, Meredith Village Savings Bank, Path Resorts, Sawyer’s Dairy Bar, Shannon Greenwood State Farm, SOS Tech, Taylor True Valley Rental, The Edge, US Cellular, and Xavier Group.

Media Partners are Breezeline, Lakes FM 101.5, Lakes Region Public Access, The Enablement Group, and The Laconia Daily Sun. And in-kind partners are Belknap Marketplace, Belmont Self Storage, Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, SOS Tech, Huot Career and Technical Center, Meredith Village Savings Bank, Taylor Rental, and Integration Partners.

The Auction runs from Dec. 6-9 at Belknap Marketplace. Viewers can bid online at ChildrensAuction.org. The event will be streamed live on the Auction website and at LaconiaDailySun.com and Facebook.com/ChildrensAuction. Watch live on Breezeline Channel 12 and Lakes Region Public Access TV Channel 25, or listen on Lakes FM 101.5.

Learn more about the Auction at ChildrensAuction.com.

About the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction:

The Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction is a charitable event held every December in central New Hampshire. Countless volunteers and donors have turned the Auction and its many fundraising events, including the It’s For the Kids Community Challenge, into a major annual campaign. In the 40 years that the community has come together for the Auction, an impressive $7.5 million has been awarded to local nonprofit organizations, all through volunteer efforts, community donations, and corporate sponsorship. The Greater Lakes Region Charitable Fund for Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps community organizations in the Central New Hampshire region. For more information about the Auction, the nonprofits it supports, and how you can help, visit ChildrensAuction.com.

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For several years now, I have been writing blogs and press releases to support the fundraising efforts of the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction. This nonprofit in New Hampshire, where I also live part-time, raises money to disperse annual grants to organizations that support children and families in need. When writing this blog, I had the pleasure of interviewing my brother, Allan, and sister-in-law, Jennifer; they are amazing philanthropists who work tirelessly for the community.

In the mid-2000s, Allan Beetle found himself on a stationary bicycle in the middle of the night at the Laconia Athletic and Swim Club. He was taking part in a fundraiser the club’s owners, Tom and Lori Oakley, had dreamed up and named Cycle Mania. Teams from the community took turns on the bikes, riding to raise money for the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction.

As Allan tends to do, he chatted up his neighbor on the next bike as the two pedaled. Allan was forming a wild idea. “We talked about the possibility of doing the same kind of fundraising event with teams, but instead of sitting on bikes, team members would sit on bar stools,” says Allan, co-owner with his brother Jeffrey of Patrick’s Pub & Eatery in Gilford. “It was like ‘Ha ha. That would be funny.’”

Not too many years later, though, around 2007 or 2008, Allan and his wife, Jennifer, and friends who became co-organizers, dreamed that wacky idea into existence. Pub Mania was launched in 2009 with 27 teams, 27 bar stools, and 24 people per team, each assigned to a bar stool in Patrick’s. For 24 hours, team members manned the stools and enthusiastically raised dollars for the kids. Having retired Cycle Mania, Tom and Lori Oakley headed up a team. 

Instantly, Pub Mania became the single largest fundraising support for the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction, raising an unprecedented $47,000 that first year, stunning those who took part as well as Auction leaders. “Our goal was $30,000, and we brought in $47,000. It was the largest single donation ever to the Auction,” Allan says. “Nobody had ever walked in there and turned over a check with that kind of money. It was really fun for everyone.”

Going forward, Pub Mania’s organizers and team captains, fondly described as the “heart” of Pub Mania, began the game of “Plus $1,” playing to raise at least one new dollar each new year. 

“It just kept growing, and every year, it was a delight to go down to the Auction and unveil a check that was most often beyond anyone’s expectation,” says Allan, who enjoyed calling Pub Mania “the world’s greatest bar stool challenge” as the event grew over the years. “I think there were one or two years where we barely beat our previous goal, but a lot of years, we crushed it.”

Jennifer Beetle says the big numbers evolved as some team members began fundraising and hosting events all year round. “It was inspiring and gave people a lot of social events to attend,” Jennifer says, explaining that new events created by teams to bolster Pub Mania’s annual giving included comedy and music shows, golf and corn hole tournaments, bake sales and handmade items, and everything in between. 

In 2019, the 11th, and final year, as fate would have it, Pub Mania played out again in December with 31 teams that raised a whopping $355,453. In total, the bar stool challenge brought over $2.3 million into the Auction’s coffers. That sum is staggering by any measure but is particularly so when compared to the amount Patrick’s staff and customers raised when Jennifer and Allan first got involved in Auction fundraising.

Back then, in the late 1990s, around the time Patrick’s opened, before Cycle or Pub Mania, Allan says Patrick’s held its own loosely organized annual auction, donating about $500 to $1,500 each year. “We went down and presented a check to the Auction and had a lot of fun doing that,” Allan says. “The more we got involved, the more we learned about the various ways that kids were being helped by the money.”

Once Pub Mania was born, there were all kinds of new and different fun to be had. The event featured 12 hours of live music, each hour of the event had a theme—with more raucous offerings taking place in the wee hours—and there were contests, and referees to make sure the rules were followed, and 50-50 raffles. “We mixed up the games over the years to keep it fresh and interesting,” Jennifer says. 

Each year, there were opening and closing ceremonies. The event kicked off with pomp and circumstance, featuring Auction founder Warren Bailey telling the story of how the nonprofit got started. Former Laconia Mayor Mike Seymour was dubbed mayor of Pub Mania, and each year, he’d come to opening ceremonies donning a top hat and proclaim Pub Mania Day. Michael Graham, pastor of Gilford Community Church, read a blessing that was sure to make everyone smile. 

Songs were also written just to be sung during Pub Mania. Allan and his friend Shawn Bailey, a Pub Mania referee, penned the event’s jingle, and friend and musician Rick Page wrote a more moving theme song, “Santa Can You Hear Me,” which was performed during closing ceremonies.

As the event wrapped up each year, speakers included young people from organizations supported by the Auction, such as the Boys and Girls Club. The stories of how they were helped and their gratitude made for a touching end to an incredibly impactful event. 

“It was always for the kids,” Allan says. “Everything we did was to raise more money on behalf of the kids. Everyone who participated did it for the kids, but we always tried to make sure people were having fun at the same time.”

The post Creating Some Mania—for a Client, and for the Kids appeared first on Beetle Press.

The dedications were part of the Community Champions Sweepstakes, which coincided with Customer Appreciation Days in May

FLORENCE—In 2011, it seemed a leukemia diagnosis was the worst thing that could happen to Gayle Bradley’s grandson. But in 2015, after four years of remission, the then 10-year-old Luke Bradley relapsed and also contracted bacterial meningitis.

Luke spent six weeks in intensive care, suffered seizures, and barely survived the damage to his ventricles and brain.  Luke spent 15 months living in a hospital and recovered slowly. Now, he is in remission once again, and just completed his freshman year of high school. Clearly impacted by the trauma of Luke’s illness, his family founded a nonprofit—called LukeStronger, Inc.—to offer financial relief to other families with a child battling cancer.

“We were blessed to have so many people help us as we went through this fight, so this foundation is our way of giving back,” said Bradley, of South Hadley.   

In May, the LukeStronger fund received a $500 boost after Gayle Bradley was named one of 11 Florence Bank Community Champions. As part of its Community Champions Sweepstakes program, the bank offered each of the 11 Champions a $500 grant to be donated to a nonprofit of their choice.

Bradley chose LukeStronger; all funds raised by the organization this year will support the family of 3-year-old Surai Gomez of Holyoke, who is battling high-risk neuroblastoma. Bradley was nominated for the Community Champion award by Florence Bank customer Jessica Randall of Granby.

In all, 218 nominations were cast at Florence Bank’s 11 branches for 11 Champions, and Florence Bank granted $5,500 to 11 different nonprofits in Hampshire and Hampden counties, and beyond.

As part of the sweepstakes, customers in each branch were invited to cast one vote in their neighborhood branch for a person in their community who goes above and beyond to ensure that residents are safe, healthy, and happy.

Voting took place from April 15 through May 6. Winners were selected at random from all the nominees in each branch. The winners had the privilege of selecting an area nonprofit to receive a $500 grant.

Bradley was nominated in the Granby branch. The following are the remaining 10 branch’s Champions and the nonprofits they chose to support with the $500 grant: Springfield, Myles Callender of Springfield, Revitalize Community Development Corporation; West Springfield, Allen Howard of West Springfield, Shriners Hospitals for Children—Springfield; Belchertown, Jim Phaneuf of Belchertown, The Jimmy Fund; Amherst, Naz Mohamed of Hadley, who split the award evenly between Amherst Community Connections, Amherst Survival Center, and the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership; Hadley, Gary Glenn of Granby, Newman Catholic Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; King Street/Northampton, Jane Lyons, executive director of Friends of Children, Friends of Children; downtown Northampton, Diane Porcella of Northampton, Northampton Neighbors; Easthampton, Robin Bialecki, director of the Easthampton Community Center; Florence, Jacob Fine of Northampton, Pioneer Valley Workers Center; and Williamsburg, Goshen Fire Chief Sue Labrie, Goshen Firefighters Association.

Labrie was the Champion recognized by the Williamsburg branch, where she received nearly 30 different nominations. The grant to the Goshen Firefighters’ Association will support ongoing efforts including fire safety education—a topic she is passionate about.

Labrie began teaching fire safety lessons through the SAFE (Student Awareness of Fire Education) Program over 20 years ago to students at the old Goshen Center School. Over the years, she expanded the program so that children from preschool through sixth grade at the New Hingham Regional Elementary School, serving Goshen and Chesterfield, can receive fire and life safety education five times throughout each school year.  She also teaches fire and life safety lessons to Goshen’s Senior Citizens.

This January, her efforts were credited by a family in Goshen with saving their lives. With temperatures in the teens, Jess and Phil Judd of Goshen put their knowledge to work when a fire in their home blazed out of control. The Judds, with their four young sons, were awakened by smoke alarms and escaped their burning home with only the clothes on their backs.

Firefighters said the family’s quick response was due to them having a prepared family home escape plan that helped them get out in a matter of minutes. Labrie believed that if the home did not have working smoke alarms, the headlines would have been tragic.

“The Judd’s story really impacted me and the Goshen Fire Department not only because they’re a family we know and love, but because sometimes you just don’t know if you truly reach people when teaching these programs,” Labrie said. She added, “Houses can be replaced, people can’t. This is why we teach children as young as preschool and keep reinforcing the messages and skills throughout elementary school.”

The Community Champions Sweepstakes was an initiative for the bank that served as part of this year’s Customer Appreciation Days campaign. As part of the initiative, each branch held a celebration in the latter weeks of May to present its Champion with a winner’s certificate and the $500 check for the nonprofit of choice.

Florence Bank has branches in Amherst, Belchertown, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Northampton, Williamsburg, West Springfield, and Springfield, and it is headquartered in Florence.

Florence Bank is a mutually-owned savings bank chartered in 1873. Currently, the bank serves the Pioneer Valley through 11 full-service branch locations in Florence, Northampton, Easthampton, Williamsburg, Amherst, Hadley, Belchertown, Granby, West Springfield and a new branch located on Allen Street in Springfield. Additionally, they offer 28 ATMs and a wide range of financial services including investment management through FSB Financial Group (FSBFG) to consumers and businesses.  Florence Bank is consistently voted best local bank by the readers of the Valley Advocate and the Daily Hampshire Gazette.  

The post Florence Bank Recognized 11 Local Residents for Community Service and Granted a Total of $5,500 to 11 Nonprofits appeared first on Beetle Press.