As the premier community bank in our market, BayCoast recognizes its responsibility to support local non-profit organizations. Some major gifts we’ve awarded this year have been to build a handicap entrance for the Catholic Memorial Home, to expand programs at the Battleship Cove Maritime Museum, and to help build a new Dartmouth home for My Brother’s Keeper. Recipients of other major gifts have been SSTAR, the May Institute, Lloyd Center for the Environment, and the Westport Land Conservation Trust, among many others. While we continue to support many worthwhile initiatives, programs and organizations, we have come to believe that education is the single most important tool a person can carry through life, and that the economic growth of any community is driven by the quality of education that is available to its people. However, we recognize that a high quality education is not always readily available to everyone. That’s why last spring we launched the Get on the Bus initiative, in partnership with the EdUp Committee of the Bristol County Chamber of Commerce. The primary goal of Get On The Bus is to make education a top of mind subject for SouthCoast residents, thereby creating a movement that generates continued support for local funding of school budgets and educational initiatives. This message was bolstered by a refurbished school bus that visited schools and community events, allowing us to interact with people of all ages as we collected stories about the impact of education on their lives. The most compelling stories were then awarded financial support for their schools and educational programs, such as the Global Learning Charter School in New Bedford, Greene Elementary and BMC Durfee in Fall River, St. Joseph’s in Fairhaven, and Westport High School. Beyond the movement, our goal was to invest in initiatives that had a genuine impact on educational attainment in the region. Studies show that students are more likely to aspire to attending college if they are exposed to the idea at an early age. Partnering with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth LeDuc Center for Civic Engagement, we provided every 7th grade student in Fall River Public Schools a tour of the campus with presentations about program offerings and a chance to talk with UMD students about what college life is like. The results of these college tours showed an overwhelming positive response from participants, changing some of their previous perceptions to now believe that college could be in their futures. We also reached out to area school districts to see how we can help them improve teaching and learning in the classroom. The result was a first time collaboration among Superintendents in Fall River, Somerset, Swansea, Westport and the Diocese of Fall River to develop a series of Professional Development Programs for educators with help from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, centered on the issue of Social and Emotional Learning. Nearly 300 educators benefitted from these training programs and BayCoast Bank is proud to have played a role in the development and funding of this series. During the coming year, we will continue to make education our number one priority - reminding ourselves, our friends, our neighbors and our peers why education matters to all of us. By coming together in this way, we believe we will begin to see real change taking place within our schools and our community. Through collaborations with other area organizations, we implemented a series of programs and initiatives to directly impact student opportunity, achievement, and success. Community Support