KeyBank Sponsors JumpStart’s 2021 Read for the Record®️ Campaign and Provides Books to Children Living in Affordable Housing Projects
KeyBank is a sponsor of JumpStart’s 16th annual Read for the Record literacy campaign held today. Jumpstart, a national early education organization, brings together organizations from around the world to read the same book to millions of young readers on a single day as a way to celebrate literacy and provide access to high-quality children’s books. JumpStart is focused on providing quality educational opportunities to all young children, with a particular emphasis on low-income children. KeyBank’s sponsorship also provides funding for 25 JumpStart program classrooms which focus on preparing children for kindergarten.
In conjunction with its sponsorship, KeyBank provided more than 600 copies of this year’s book selection, Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon to children ages 2-5 living in 17 affordable housing communities in the bank’s Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania markets.
KeyBank Community Development Lending and Investments (CDLI) Team Leader Victoria O’Brien, who leads CDLI’s affordable housing equity originations team, coordinated Key’s JumpStart sponsorship and volunteer effort in collaboration with two large affordable housing developer clients, The Community Builders and Beacon Communities.
KeyBank CDLI has provided over $8 billion in financing for affordable housing over the past three years. In keeping with the bank’s mission to help communities thrive, “partnering with our clients to help their tenants and residents succeed is core to our values,” said O’Brien. “We are proud to help bring the mission of JumpStart to these communities in an effort to advance early literacy and prepare all children for success in kindergarten and beyond.”
In addition to distributing the books, KeyBank employee volunteers held read-along sessions to children at some of the properties.
“Volunteerism is central to our inclusive community efforts,” said Market President James Barger. “We applaud JumpStart for emphasizing literature in their program that reflects the diversity of our communities, and we were happy to provide Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon, which aligns with Key’s culture of diversity and inclusion.”
KeyBank provided books to children in the following housing properties:
Connecticut:
- Coppermine Village, Bristol
- Dutch Point, Hartford
- Ninth Square, New Haven
- Monterey Place, New Haven
Massachusetts:
- New Franklin Park, Boston
- The Clarion, Boston
- Lenox Camden, Boston
- Mandela Homes, Boston
- Homes of Old Colony, Boston
- Lyman Terrace, Holyoke
- Georgetowne 1 & 2, Hyde Park
- Palmer Green Estates, Palmer
- Colonial Estates, Springfield
New York:
- Cottage Place Gardens (The Villas), Yonkers
Pennsylvania:
- Forest Green, Coraopolis