North Haven’s Liberty Bank Partners with Rotary Club for Thanksgiving Food Drive

Despite a hurricane and a nor’easter hampering this year’s drive, the North Haven Rotary Club continued its annual partnership with the Liberty Bank Foundation, along with 26 other Rotary clubs around the state, to collect money for each town’s food bank prior to Thanksgiving. Once again, the bank pledged 25 cents for every dollar raised. The Foundation reported that the 27 clubs did well raising $121,303.21 and Liberty Bank’s matching funds came to $25,000, for a total of $146,303.21. Mark M. Piscitelli, the Liberty Bank Branch Manager located on Washington Avenue in North Haven, recently presented a check to Rev. Scott Morrow, the pastor of the Congregational Church which has housed the local Food Pantry for decades. In addition to serving over 30 families on a regular basis, the cleric reported that 86 families received assistance for the holiday.

The Rotary club’s annual co-chairpersons for the drive, Debbie Volain and John Henry Graef, Jr., met with Morrow and Piscitelli for the formal presentation in the Liberty Bank lobby on November 20th. While the combined contributions from various community groups to the annual Rotary food drive were certainly impacted by efforts to help victims of Hurricane Sandy, the local drive still managed to raise $2,887.52, including the $493.41 in matching funds from the local bank. A special note of thanks was extended to the children and staff at Green Acres Elementary School for donating $93, which was half of their total effort since the other half went to survivors of the hurricane.