Citizens Bank distributes 3,000 backpacks containing more than 25,000 new school supply items through its Gear for Grades program

Program, run in partnership with 95.7 WZID and PlusTime NH, accepted donations from public at Citizens Bank branches across New Hampshire

Manchester, N.H.     (August 25, 2008) - Citizens Bank distributed 3,000 new backpacks filled with pens, pencils, notebooks, erasers, rulers, and more to school children in need across New Hampshire through its Gear for Grades program. The program, which ran from July 21 through August 8, encouraged the public to donate new school supplies and drop them off at any Citizens Bank branch in the state. Gear for Grades was held in partnership with 95.7 WZID and PlusTime NH.

Cathy Schmidt, President of Citizens Bank, New Hampshire, said the program was a huge success, collecting more than 25,000 new school items for kids to take to school with them. The backpacks, donated by Citizens Bank Foundation, and filled with the school supplies, were distributed to children via after school programs beginning August 18. 

“I want to personally thank all of the people who made a donation to this terrific program to ensure that children have the basic tools they need to learn and succeed in school,” said Schmidt. “We are delighted that so many supplies were contributed and that we could really make a difference by providing these backpacks. I also want to thank PlusTime NH for its efforts in identifying the programs with the greatest need, and WZID for helping us get the word out. Hats off to both organizations for helping make this program such a great success.”

A significant contribution to the campaign was made by Measured Progress, a Dover-based company that donated 3,000 single subject notebooks to the New Hampshire drive.
Nearly 20,000 backpacks will be distributed by Citizens throughout New England as part of this year’s Gear for Grades program.

“We were very proud to join Citizens Bank for the third year of the Gear for Grades program,” said Ray Garon, President and General Manager of 95.7 WZID. “Once again, I am impressed by the generosity of our listeners and the general public who donated supplies to help thousands of children across New Hampshire.”

About PlusTime NH

PlusTime NH is a nonprofit organization whose mission it is to make it possible, through advocacy and technical support, for all youth to participate in positive, safe out-of-school time programs and experiences. It was established a decade ago with a grant from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services in response to the increasing problem of unsupervised youth and the limited resources available for communities to start out-of-school time programs.

About Citizens Bank

Citizens Bank is a division of RBS Citizens, N.A., operating its seven-state branch network in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. It has 78 branches and 158 ATMs in New Hampshire.

RBS Citizens, N.A. is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $161 billion commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence, R.I. CFG’s two bank subsidiaries are RBS Citizens, N.A. and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. They operate a 13-state branch network under the Citizens Bank brand in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and the Charter One brand in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. CFG has non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states. It is one of the 10 largest commercial banking companies in the United States ranked by assets and deposits. CFG is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc).