Nov. 21, 2013
By Tara Cavanaugh
To all those who voted in the Bank of Ann Arbor JumpstART contest: Thank you. Those clicks were worth it.
Bank of Ann Arbor is distributing $3,000 each to ten Ann Arbor Public Schools in support of digital and performing arts. Thurston, Bryant, Lakewood, Carpenter, Abbot, Ann Arbor Open, Clague, Pioneer, Huron and Skyline are among the 12 winners.
Voting took place on Facebook from Oct. 23 to Nov. 8. Over 47,000 votes in total were cast.
“It was exciting to see how the schools mobilized and got people to vote, especially in the elementary schools,” said Rhonda Foxworth, Bank of Ann Arbor’s vice president and marketing manager. “You could vote once a day, and many of those people were voting regularly.”
Bank of Ann Arbor enrolled all schools in Washtenaw County in the contest, and AAPS took away the lion’s share of the prize. The two other schools who won were Honey Creek Community School and Ypsilanti’s Erickson Elementary.
Bank of Ann Arbor representatives are making visits to each one of the schools to present checks. Some employees volunteered to bring the checks to schools they graduated from.
Michael Cole, the bank’s technology industry group president, presented the check at Clague Middle School’s orchestra concert on Nov. 19.
“Clague Middle School was founded in 1972 and I’m happy to tell you all I was part of that class,” Cole said.
“It’s a great honor to give this to the performing arts programs here at Clague. Bank of Ann Arbor is a great supporter of the local community. We’re owned and operated by people in this community and we just really enjoy being able to give back to programs like this.”
The AAPS News will continue to update this story with photos as Bank of America makes check presentations at the schools during the next two weeks.
A2 BANK THANK YOU !!!!
Thank you for your generous gift to the Arts, Bank of Ann Arbor! That’s why you’re my bank!