Princeton Chamber Of Commerce issued the following announcement on Nov. 21.
BookMates, a program offered by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Southern New Jersey, has received a $5,000 grant from the Investors Foundation. The grant will be paid out over two years and be used to bring the joy of reading to children in low- to moderate-income communities.
BookMates applied for the grant from the Investors Foundation, which supports non-profit organizations that enrich the diverse communities served by Investors Bank.
Investors Bank’s Christopher P. Warren, senior vice president business lending, along with Barry Epps, assistant vice president and Voorhees branch manager, presented the check at one of the BookMates kick-off meetings for the 2019-2020 school year at the office of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
“We are so pleased to support the BookMates program,” explained Warren. “More than 25 years ago, my wife and I participated in a very similar program and it made us realize the importance of giving back to the community. Investors Bank also is committed to giving back to the community. Literacy and education are particular passions for the bank. Investors is grateful for the opportunity to help children gain a love for reading that hopefully will carry through the rest of their lives.”
“I am so grateful that Investors Bank has chosen to support our mission of reading to at-risk students,” said BookMates Director Rhonda Shevrin. “I am looking forward to a long relationship.”
BookMates provides weekly one-to-one reading sessions with an adult volunteer in more than 40 schools receiving Title 1 funding in Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties. Through the efforts of the trained volunteers, the children are further exposed to a wide range of literature, an expanded vocabulary, and an additional focus on reading comprehension.
According to Shevrin, more than 300 BookMates volunteers, many of who are retirees, read to more than 600 children in Kindergarten through second-grade. The children are not the only beneficiaries. Many of the volunteers return year-after-year to participate in the program because they see it as an enjoyable and satisfying opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life.
“We are delighted to support BookMates,” said Epps. “Investors Bank is committed to bringing ‘community’ back to banking. We believe that we only can be successful if we are involved and giving back to the communities we serve.”
Original source can be found here.
Source: Princeton Chamber Of Commerce
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