These past two years have been trying times. But when many are worn out and exhausted, all it sometimes takes is a community friend to show appreciation to boost spirits. Legend Bank helped rally its community during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and has been voted as Social Assurance’s 2022 Community Spark Awards winner!
The Snack Bar of Support started with an email request from a patient navigator at Wise Health System. They reached out to Delaina Henderson, SVP Loan Services, and asked if Legend Bank would be interested in donating snacks to their new “Recharge Room.” This hospital room was dedicated to allowing staff to take a break from their demanding and exhausting days due to the pandemic.
Delaina shared the request with others at Legend Bank, and the idea quickly gained momentum. They developed ideas on how Legend Bank could help all of the communities they serve to give back to healthcare workers in the middle COVID-19 variant surge. The Legend Bank executive team decided to stock the Recharge Room at Wise Health System and take it to the next step.
Legend Bank gave each branch manager a monetary allocation to spend on snacks and drinks to donate to their local hospital and urgent care centers. This provided opportunities for every community to contribute a “Snack Bar of Support” to show heartfelt love and appreciation for their local healthcare workers. Local Legend Bank branches took this idea and ran with it. Soon, branches were providing hospitals and urgent care centers with Snack Bar Refills to continue their supportive efforts for healthcare workers.
The COVID surges last fall and again at the beginning of 2022 brought extreme pressure and stress on healthcare workers who were already worn down from the first wave of the disease. Legend Bank launched the Snack Bar of Support on the 18-month anniversary of Texas’s first positive COVID-19 case. Over 56,000 Texans had lost their battle with the disease at that time.
“Our friends in healthcare have been pushed to the limit over the last 24 months dealing with the pandemic. It pains us to hear about the constant stress and sacrifice that doctors, nurses, hospital and urgent care staff, volunteers, and everyone else involved in caring for the sick have endured and are still enduring daily,” said Legend Bank Jay Bearden, President and CEO of Legends Bank. “Given the current circumstance, we at the bank feel we have an obligation to help. We hoped this small gesture provided a moment’s solace for our healthcare workers and showed them the deep emotional sympathy and appreciation Legend Bank has for all these brave men and women who daily step up and put themselves on the front line of this battle against COVID-19.”
The success of this project is seen by the numerous appreciation messages sent from the healthcare workers at local hospitals. Legend Bank has stocked 13 hospital and urgent care breakrooms with 27 deliveries since the project launched in September 2021.
As a 2022 Community Spark Awards winner, Social Assurance is proud to donate $400 on behalf of Legend Bank to a local nonprofit organization of their choosing. The nonprofit they selected was the Community Enrichment Center. We are thrilled to be a small part of the remarkable work they have done to give back to their community.
Social Assurance is committed to providing the financial services industry with a suite of software solutions, services, and storytelling tools that help build remarkable financial brands, cultures, and communities. With a mission to empower, ignite, and enable financial brands to be remarkable, Social Assurance now serves over 1,500 financial brands across the country, helping them to leave their mark and be heroes of their community.
