Jon Bargfrede, the bank’s president and CEO, handed the check to Troops-to-Teachers Director Geri Willis at the Bank of Saipan in Chalan Kanoa at 2 p.m. on Thursday.
It was Bank of Saipan’s way of supporting Operation CNMI Home Front Support, which aims to provide deployed servicemembers care packages, letters, newspapers, and any other items from the CNMI.
The Troops-to-Teachers program, Willis said, thanks the members of the community for their generous donations.
With the help of the local chapter of the American Red Cross and Marianas Cable Vision, Operation CNMI Home Front Support successfully sent more than 200 holiday gift boxes of local treats to CNMI soldiers in Iraq.
Willis said the servicemembers “were so surprised that each of them got one.”
A servicemember, in an e-mail, said “we had a Spam party.”
Also present during the presentation of the check were John Hirsh and Kennedy Benjamin of the American Red Cross, Mark Birmingham of MCV and Jill Arenovski and Fred Camacho of the Troops-to-Teachers program.
