As we did last year, Ledyard created and executed a volunteer day for our employees.

Last year, our involvement was through the national "Make a Difference Day" program. This year, we decided to create our own day called "Ledyard Lend a Hand Day." We wanted our own day so, over time, non-profit organizations will associate Ledyard with this type of activity, making it more likely that they will remember and contact us for assistance.

This is a great time for Ledyard to develop this type of ongoing program. Given the economic conditions of the last year or so, non-profits need outside assistance more than ever. At the same time, so many of their traditional funding sources have dried up. And that’s where we can really contribute. In essence, we provide our labor to complete the projects ourselves. It gives us a great opportunity to meet the employees and volunteers of those organizations. It also allows us to actually see the facilities and those that use the services, etc., so we better understand our community and its needs.

The program’s scope has already grown. Last year we had seven projects and this year we have 12. Based on interest in the community, I’m certain we’ll have even more projects next year.

This year, we opened up the program to our clients. We received a great deal of positive feedback from them and several ended up joining us on various projects. It was truly rewarding to work with our clients on community projects outside of traditional bank business. But, more importantly, it gave us an opportunity to learn more about them in a relaxed and less formal setting.

In the end, we had nearly 60 volunteers. Most were employees (about half of bank employees participated) - some employees even brought family members. And as I noted earlier, a few clients joined us, as well.

Check back next week to see a list of the 12 projects in which we participated.