As they did last year, staff members at Snow Lake’s Royal Bank branch donned work gloves and boots and took part in a twofold strategy designed to help their community.
According to branch manager Lillian Haines, through what is called the RBC Day of Service Grant, employees and retirees who volunteer 40 hours or more for a charitable organization are eligible to earn cash for their organization through the RBC Volunteer Grants Program.
“We put in three hours of volunteer work outside bank hours with a team of six people, three of which had to be RBC employees,” explained assistant branch manager Colleen Cairns. “We had a number of different family and friends come out and help us.”
Noting that the group cleaned the Sunset Bay Beach last year and donated the grant money to the Town of Snow Lake, Haines said that during the current year, employees spread their energy and the resultant money throughout the community.
This year they helped four organizations: Snow Lake Centre on Family Violence, Town of Snow Lake, Snow Lake Health Auxiliary and Northern Tykes Daycare.
“At the Snow Lake Centre on Family Violence we went in and painted two rooms in the basement and cleaned walls in another, preparing it for painting,” said Cairns, a member of that team.
With respect to the Town of Snow Lake, another working group walked the highway from town to the cemetery and picked up garbage in the ditches along the way. They then cleaned up garbage and brush at the cemetery.
For the Snow Lake Health Auxiliary, employees volunteered at the organization’s Second Glance store. They washed floors and walls, cleaned the windows inside and out, and dusted and cleaned the different showcases in the store.
Finally at the Northern Tykes Daycare, a group of helpers cleaned up the yard and washed all the windows.
As a result of the RBC employees’ socially conscious initiative and hard work, they were able to donate $1,000 to each of the groups they helped out.
Representatives of those groups were on hand at the bank on June 13 to receive their much-appreciated donations.
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