ING DIRECT/ING Foundation Partners With Local School
ING DIRECT and Prestige Academy, Delaware's first and only all-boys charter school, recently celebrated a new partnership that will help support the school's mission of giving students a strong academic foundation and crucial life skills. A grant provided by the ING Foundation will provide funding for textbooks, financial education, student assessments and Teach for America fees. Community leaders, educators, business leaders, and public officials, including U.S. Senator Thomas R Carper, and ING DIRECT team members attended a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate this partnership and the acquisition of the charter school's new building.
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Associates Lend a Helping Hand to Local Communities
In an effort to overshadow tough economic times, more than 2,000 ING DIRECT associates showed the true spirit of giving back to our local communities by participating in the bank's third annual "Orange Days of Giving." More than 200 associates from Seattle worked with the local parks department to spruce up two of Seattle's oldest parks and a team from Los Angeles revamped a non-profit multicenter that helps families transfer from temporary to permanent housing. Midwest associates from Chicago and St. Cloud gave two junior high schools a "back to school makeover" and Hawaii associates worked to preserve a local mountain watershed and support the neighborhood Adopt-a-Highway organization. To culminate "Orange Days of Giving," East coast associates from Delaware, Philadelphia, and New York spent the day completing a variety of renovation projects at three Boys and Girls Club sites, an elementary school, and a Habitat for Humanity home build in Wilmington, Delaware and a Boy Scouts of America reservation in North East, Maryland.
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DE Sales Team Partners With Local Horticulture Center
On Saturday, September 12, members from the ING DIRECT Sales Experience Team gave the city of Wilmington, Delaware a mini makeover as part of a volunteer team building event. Ten associates spent the day weeding, clearing brush, digging holes, and planting 2,000 bulbs on the Delaware Avenue median strip. The ING DIRECT Sales Experience Team will partner with the Delaware Center for Horticulture in the future to donate more of their time and talents.
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St. Cloud Office Community Service Project
ING DIRECT Associates gave the St. Cloud community a well deserved helping hand by partnering with the local parks department to spruce up Hester Park. On July 15, 40 associates volunteered their time to edge and weed more than ten flower gardens, pick up trash along walking paths, paint light posts, and do other landscaping projects. ING DIRECT's St. Cloud offices will partner with the Downtown Council in the Fall to donate more of their time and talents.
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St. Cloud Associates Assist with Sandbagging Efforts in Fargo
Twenty-one Associates from ING DIRECT's St. Cloud offices piled on a bus en route to Fargo, North Dakota to assist the Fargo community with their sandbagging efforts. Subzero temperatures and the race against rising flood waters did not stop the ING DIRECT Associates and community members from filling hundreds of thousands of sandbags. The sandbags created a 12-mile man-made barrier to protect some residential areas and key city facilities from the surging Red River. The volunteers were grateful to lend a helping hand and were proud to offer their services to the residents of Fargo.
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Wilmington Café Puts on Young Adults Savings Seminar
The Wilmington Café hosted its first Young Adults "Save Your Money" Seminar for the students of the William Penn High School's Adult Integration Program. The hour long seminar focused on needs versus wants and ended with an interactive board game to reinforce the topics discussed. The café and school partnership aims to provide practical work and life skills to students who are between the ages of 18 and 21 and have mild to moderate mental disabilities.
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ING DIRECT Teams up with Easter Seals in Charity Volleyball Challenge
ING DIRECT associates participated in the 2009 CAI/Easter Seals Volleyball Challenge at the University of Delaware's Bob Carpenter Center. Be glad we didn't keep score! But, there was a winner. The Volleyball Challenge raises funds to help Easter Seals provide critically needed services for children and adults with disabilities. So far, more than $257,000 has been raised on behalf of the organization through generous donations from ING DIRECT and other local companies.
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Inaugural Hockey Challenge Benefits Junior Achievement
The ING DIRECT All-Stars Hockey Team faced off against the Philadelphia Flyers Alumni Team at the Pond Ice Arena in Newark, DE. The inaugural "Hockey Challenge" event drew over 400 spectators and featured a silent auction, autographs and much more. Proceeds from the event benefited Junior Achievement of Delaware, which educates children in kindergarten through 12th grade in areas of financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness.
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