TAMPA – Amscot Financial, a leading provider of convenient, consumer-oriented financial services, announces that it will launch its 13th annual ‘Just a Dollar’ campaign across Florida this month. The program, which asks customers to donate just a dollar, uses 100 percent of those funds directly to benefit the Brevard County School District, providing students and teachers with supplies and tools they need to succeed.
“We conduct this campaign because the generosity of our customers continues to make a tremendous difference in the lives of children in the community,” said Ian MacKechnie, founder and CEO of Amscot Financial. “Everyone sees the importance of investing in their local students and schools and is eager to give back. It’s up to the community to help fill in the gaps where tax dollars and school budgets don’t fully meet the students’ needs.” Amscot Financial will match the first $10,000 in customer contributions and the company founder and his wife Jean are demonstrating their commitment to the effort by personally donating $50,000 to the campaign.
Now in its second decade, Amscot Financial’s ‘Just a Dollar’ campaign has cumulatively raised more than $1.2 million benefitting students throughout the company’s 20 county service territory. Classroom grants, extra support for struggling readers, teacher supply stores and student scholarships are all examples of how the funds have been used in past years.
This year’s campaign is coming at a time when more than 10,000 students displaced from Puerto Rico and other hurricane-damaged areas have enrolled in Florida schools. Many are arriving without the basic items they need to be successful in their new schools and local education foundations are stepping in the gap to provide school supplies, clothing and hygiene items so they can get back to the business of learning as quickly as possible.
“We are so grateful for generous support of Amscot and its customers through this campaign. This support will help our local students succeed in school through programs like Bright Ideas Classroom Grants, Space Week, The Supply Zone, Take Stock in Children and more ” said Janice Kershaw, President of Brevard Schools Foundation.
Founded in 1989, Amscot Financial employs more than 2,000 associates working at 237 retail branches and at the company’s corporate headquarters in Tampa. The company currently operates retail locations in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Polk, Hardee, Highlands, Manatee, Sarasota, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake, Volusia, Brevard, Marion, Citrus, Flagler, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties.