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Receives $10,000
Jewett City Savings Bank awarded NOW a $10,000 grant. From left: Kevin Merchant, president and CEO; Mike Alberts, vice president; Amanda Heibel, Putnam branch manager; Tayler Shea, NOW executive director; Pamela Brown, volunteer grant writer; and Valentine Iamartino, board member and Grants Committee member. Courtesy photo.


PUTNAM — Jewett City Savings Bank last week awarded Northeast Opportunities for Wellness, Inc. (NOW) a $10,000 grant through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston’s Jobs for New England Recovery Grant Program.
Throughout the year, NOW partners with local youth-serving organizations focused on sports and wellness activities. These partnerships include scholarship support, with NOW offering scholarships to qualifying youth of the community with up to 95 percent of the cost being subsidized by the non-profit. NOW has provided just under $93,000 in youth sports scholarships since 2015. In addition to scholarships, NOW promotes wellness education to all children participating in partner organization activities throughout each season of sports as well as with community partners and other local non-profit organizations.
NOW Executive Director Tayler Shea said: “NOW is very grateful to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston and Jewett City Savings Bank for this grant. To say that 2020 was an unpredictable year would be quite an understatement. Like so many other organizations, NOW felt the deep impact of COVID-19 on our programs and events.”
Most of the 2020 fund-raisers had to be cancelled and left a loss of crucial funds to help support scholarships and youth wellness outreach programs.
The Jobs for New England Recovery Grant Program was offered by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston.
 to member financial institutions to assist small businesses and non-profit organizations that have experienced significant losses due to the pandemic. 
As a member, Jewett City Savings Bank was able to reserve grant funds for eligible organizations in the Bank’s service area.  Jewett City Savings Bank focused its support to those organizations that had limited opportunities to participate in other funding sources that became available through the CARES Act and other government programs.


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