Helen Keller famously said, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” Here at Village Bank, we could not agree more! Working together to support each other and our community is one of our core values and a key component of what makes our Village strong.
Whether Villagers are handing out candy in local parades or directly supporting organizations by collecting funds, food and supplies, we are committed to being good neighbors and supportive members of our community. We’d love to share just a few of the ways that we put that spirit into action.
Village Bank is a proud supporter of Achieve Services in Blaine. For more than 50 years, this organization has offered services to adults and children with disabilities in Anoka County. Today, Achieve Services helps about 170 people find opportunities for independence and to enrich their lives by focusing on what they can do; nearly half of the people in their programs have jobs in our community. For more than ten years, Village Bank has supported the great work of Achieve Services by selling paper buses and nuts, with all proceeds going directly to them. In 2018 alone, we collected over $1,800 in donations thanks to you, our Villagers!
For the first time in 2019, Village Bank partnered with the non-profit organization, Best Christmas Ever, to give back to a local family going experiencing tough times through no fault of their own. Our BCE family includes mom and three elementary school-age kids. The middle son has been through brain tumor surgeries and chemotherapy. Financially, with medical bills and mom not being able to work, things are very tight for the family. With the help of our Village, we will donate more than 150 gifts and a monetary gift to the family to make it the Best Christmas Ever for them. We could not have done this without the generosity of our Village. Thank you!
Our Village Bank employees also volunteered their time to support children in other villages around the world this year, by working with Feed My Starving Children in Coon Rapids. This Minnesota-based nonprofit’s mission is to feed malnourished children around the world by collecting donations and packing food boxes to send to them. In a single 90 minute shift, our Villagers were able to help pack 106 boxes of food to send to Uganda; enough to feed 63 children for an entire year! That experience confirmed that each of us can make a difference in the lives of someone else, even if we have busy schedules or limited resources to donate.
As this year draws to a close, all of us at Village Bank want to say a sincere thank you to our customers and friends for helping us support these wonderful organizations. Together our Village can do even more great things for our community in 2020!