Back-to-School Giving: Dollar Bank School Supply Drives
From pencils to backpacks, Dollar Bank employees rolled up their sleeves to gather school supplies, making sure kids in our communities were ready to head back to school.
Here is a breakdown of the back-to-school initiatives in each of our market areas:
Virginia
Back to School Supply Drive with Volunteer Hampton Roads: In June and July, Virginia employees participated in a Back-to-School Supply Drive hosted by Volunteer Hampton Roads. All donations directly benefited Communities In Schools Hampton Roads, a nonprofit that focuses on supporting students and empowering them to stay in school. The organization operates 30 schools across seven cities in Hampton Roads and is a community leader in dropout prevention.
Dollar Bank’s Virginia employees donated 112 school items, including folders, pens and notebook paper.
Write Stuff with the Salvation Army: For more than 30 years, The Salvation Army Hampton Roads Area Command, with the help of community partners and donors, has worked to ensure that children in Hampton Roads start the new school year with the “Write Stuff." The Write Stuff back-to-school initiative is an annual event that distributes backpacks filled with school supplies to students in grades kindergarten through 12 who reside in Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Portsmouth. Virginia employees Chenise Ervin and Michelle Newton tabled at the event, giving yard sticks, piggy banks and folders to students.
Cleveland
Esperanza Back-to-School Celebration: Esperanza’s mission is to promote and advance Hispanic educational achievement through modeling academic and community excellence and providing scholarship assistance. Cleveland employees, Carlos Irizarry and Gerson Jarqui, participated in Esperanza's 16th Annual Back-to-School Celebration where they collected school supplies and backpacks for students in need.
Dollar Bank Teams Up with Channel 19 News and Volunteers of America for Operation Backpack: Dollar Bank’s offices throughout Cleveland served as drop-off stations for Operation Backpack, a program through the Volunteers of America (VOA), that gives local children a new backpack and school supplies to start the school year strong. Teaming up with Cleveland’s Channel 19 News, Dollar Bank collected items from July 21 - August 8 with a one-day, drive-up collection event at the University Heights Office on August 8. Channel 19 News was on site with a live broadcast to encourage donations alongside Dollar Bank Vice President of Community Development, Dorothy Curtis and Bill Elliott, Executive Vice President of Regional Lending Director.
About 160 backpacks were collected at the Heights branch, along with food for more than 100 families and 50 assorted bags and boxes of supplies. Dollar Bank Cleveland offices collected 176 backpacks in total, including 24 filled backpacks donated at the Galleria office by HDR Engineering.
Pittsburgh
#PittsburghForPPS Back to School Event: Before Pittsburgh Public Schools began the school year, the district held its 13th Annual Back-to-School event. On August 18 at Acrisure Stadium, 150 volunteers stepped up to help the students prepare for the start of the school year with more than 3,000 free backpacks, supplies, food, shoes, books, manicures and haircuts. Dollar Bank employee, Susan Kelly was proud to be among the volunteers, lending a hand to make sure students and their families felt supported and excited for the year ahead.
About Dollar Bank
As the nation's largest independent mutual bank, Dollar Bank has been empowering the communities and customers we serve for 170 years. Our more than 90 locations throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and Virginia provide a comprehensive range of personal, small business and corporate banking solutions. We continue to invest in our customers and strengthen our communities through financial education programs and partnerships with organizations who share our dedication to building opportunities for all. As of July 2025, Dollar Bank reported total assets of $12 billion, total loans of $9.4 billion, and total deposits of $9.6 billion. For more information, visit Dollar.Bank.