Bank gives money to nonprofits

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Award recipients look on as Laura Coffin of Act 4 Ministry, Inc. of Waterbury talks about her program during the annual Naugatuck Savings Bank Foundation's Community Awards Program held May 9 at the Naugatuck Savings Bank building on Church Street in Naugatuck. This year the Naugatuck Savings Foundation gave $53,500 to 35 area organizations. –RA ARCHIVE

NAUGATUCK — Customers of Naugatuck Savings Bank have voted and decided: The Middlebury Senior Center won the most money again this year from the Community Awards Program run by the bank’s charitable foundation.

The bank’s president, Charles Boulier III, and other representatives last Wednesday awarded $53,500 to 35 nonprofit organizations from 11 towns that won this year’s community awards. The program, in its third year, allows bank customers to vote for the nonprofits they think deserve a financial boost. About 2,000 voted this year at bank branches, on paper ballots sent home with statements, or online, Boulier said.

“This Community Awards Program is a way for customers to recognize their nonprofits in their communities,” Boulier said.

The senior center received 84 votes and won nearly $4,400. Other top winners included St. Francis Church and St. Mary’s Church, both of Naugatuck, with nearly $3,400 each, and the Middlebury Congregational Church and Prospect Senior Center with nearly $2,900 each.

Boulier thanked the bank’s employees and Chairman and CEO Mark Yanarella, who started the foundation 14 years ago and is retiring this year.

“It’s going to be, in my mind, one of his greatest legacies, because this foundation will live in perpetuity,” Boulier said.

Other winners included the Naugatuck YMCA, $2,440; the Ecumenical Food Bank in Naugatuck, $1,869; St. Hedwig Church in Naugatuck, $1,817; Oxford Special Olympics, $1,765; Seven Angels Theatre in Waterbury, $1,661; Pinebrook Assembly of God in Naugatuck, $1,558; Hillside Covenant Church and St. Anthony Church in Naugatuck and Oxford United Church of Christ, $1,506 each; Naugatuck Valley Community Church in Naugatuck, $1,454; Oxford High School Booster Club and GIL Foundation in Prospect, $1,402 each; St. Francis-St. Hedwig School in Naugatuck, Prospect Congregational Church and St. Augustine Church in Seymour, $1,350 each; Naugatuck Special Olympics and Stone Chiropractic Baseball Camp in Watertown, $1,298 each; Holy Cross Fathers Club of Waterbury, $1,246; First Congregational Church in Cheshire, $1,194; Salvation Army in Ansonia, $1,090; and Naugatuck Ecumenical Outreach Network, Woodbury Lions Club and Howard Whittemore Library in Naugatuck, $1,038 each.

Seven other organizations that received fewer than 20 votes were selected at random for $500 awards. Those were Acts 4 Ministry in Waterbury, Are You Dense in Woodbury, Augusta Curtis Cultural Center, Our Lady of Mount Carmel School and St. Stanislaus Church in Meriden, Eagles Club in Naugatuck and Waterbury Health Access.

Winners of the awards are required to spend the money locally. The foundation has given away nearly $3.8 million over the years to more than 240 nonprofit organizations.