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Valley Green Bank encourages us to give the gift of reading

Valley Green Bank Sponsors the 4rd Annual Holiday Book Drive for Kids. Students from the Mastery Charter Elementary Schools will receive the donated books.

In the spirit of the holidays, Valley Green Bank is holding its 4rd annual local book drive thru December 31, 2012. The Mastery Charter elementary schools—Mann Elementary, Harrity Elementary, Smedley Elementary, Hardy Williams Academy Mastery Charter School, and Mastery Charter Clymer Campus—will be the recipients of this year’s collection. The book drive encourages families to donate new or gently used children’s books, preschool through 8th grade. The collected books will be distributed to the five elementary schools.

Local Mt Airy business Big Blue Marble Bookstore is joining in this effort by offering a 10% discount on all books purchased and contributed in the store to this book drive.

Bins to collect the books will be in Valley Green Bank’s two locations – 7226 Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy and 23 W. Highland Avenue in Chestnut Hill. Another bin will be located at Big Blue Marble Bookstore at 551 Carpenter Lane in Mt Airy.

Jay Goldstein, Valley Green Bank’s President and CEO, is pleased to be sponsoring such a worthwhile initiative.

“There is no better way to support our children than to encourage them to be avid, accomplished readers; and, as we all know, reading is a key to success in pursuing a lifetime of learning.”

Mastery Charter Schools’ CEO Scott Gordon is “thrilled” the Mastery elementary schools were chosen again for this year’s drive.

“Our five elementary schools that serve 3,300 students who were formerly enrolled in some of the lowest-performing schools in the city,” he said. “Many are 3 or 4 grade levels below where they should be in reading—so getting them to read every single day is huge. We are on track to hit our goal for every student at or above grade level within three years with Mastery by immersing our youngest students in reading now so they can go on to pursue their dreams and compete in the global economy when they grow up. Every new book donated will be in the hands of amazing children who are hungry to learn. It’s really awesome and we are just thrilled Valley Green Bank chose us for this honor.”

Smedley Elementary third grade teacher, Danielle Mezzino, responded when asked about last year’s book drive: “It was so amazing to receive the books we did last year from Valley Green Bank. Our kids get to hold books in school all the time, but there are very few who get to go home and have books to call their own. We owe much thanks to Valley Green Bank for being able to provide that for our students! The smile on their faces when they saw their first book with THEIR name in it … priceless!”

Valley Green Bank is a locally-owned and operated Pennsylvania commercial bank. The Bank was formed by community and business leaders who make customer service a priority. The Bank offers a traditional mix of deposit accounts, and interest-bearing checking accounts, savings, money market and certificate of deposit accounts. It also offers customers individual retirement accounts. Valley Green Bank is a member of FDIC.

Mastery Charter Schools is a nationally recognized leader in school turnarounds. Mastery currently operates ten schools in Philadelphia serving 7,000 students in grades K through 12. Mastery believes that educational inequity is the most pressing social problem facing the country – the civil rights issue of the day. Mastery exists to solve the problem and believes in its mission that all students learn the academic and personal skills they need to succeed in higher education compete in the global economy and pursue their dreams.

For more information about this Book Drive, please contact Valley Green Bank at 215-242-3550.

CONTACT:
Lesley Seitchik
215-803-3151