Each month, Helping Hands features a mortgage professional or group that has volunteered to lend a hand to others in need

Ivanna C. Sukkar

As published in Scotsman Guide's Commercial Edition, February 2009.

Name TD Bank

Project Annual summer reading program

Sites Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Florida and Washington, D.C.

How This past April, TD Bank kicked off its annual summer reading program during National Library Week. The bank donated $4,000 and one book each to 50 public libraries in low- to moderate-income areas in eight states that it serves and in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, says Jennifer Kastle, TD Bank's assistant vice president of community relations and community-relations manager.

The summer reading program started in 2003, Kastle says. Through the program, the bank deposited $10 in new or existing bank accounts for children who read 10 books during the summer.

Children participated in the program by picking up a brochure at their local banks and listing the 10 books they read.

Why Kastle says that the bank started the program because "education has always been important to us."

The program allowed the bank to educate children in its communities by combining the goals of encouraging them to keep up their reading skills during their summer vacations and teaching them the importance of saving money, Kastle adds.

Impact More than 15,000 children participated in the program, which ran from May to September, Kastle says.

In total, the children read at least 150,000 books. As a result, TD Bank deposited a total of $150,000 into the participants' accounts.

Information bank.tdbank.com/ personal_banking/promos/kidsreading.cfm

Ivanna C. Sukkar is senior associate editor at Scotsman Guide. Reach her at (800) 297-6061 or ivanna@scotsmanguide.com.

To share your company's story, e-mail helpinghands@scotsmanguide.com.