Neighbors Make A Difference

I love my job.

I love my company.

I find joy in drinking my herbal tea from my Key Bank coffee mug every morning.

I am "Proud to be at Key" ( something we get evaluated on in our annual reviews)

It is important for me to work for a company that I am proud to work at.

When I applied for the position at Key Bank nearly three years ago I didn't know about them. Coming from the fabulous Texas First Bank I knew what it felt like to make a difference in the immediate community. Texas First Bank taught me what it meant to work at a community bank. I came to know so many local business owners and people in the community who came in all the time. 

 I learned to love banking and to teach people how to manage their money, and help them when they needed it.  TFB valued their customers and their community and they were such a large part of it. Just because I was in Utah I didn't see why I needed to work for a company that was any less involved in the community. 

But here was this company. Key. Never heard of them. (We don't have a "footprint" -as they call it- in Texas). I researched them online. I went to their website and looked up the philanthropy they do. When I got my first interview, a phone interview with an HR person at the corporate offices in Ohio, I interviewed HER. I knew I was a great bargain and that they would hire me with my background in banking and personal achievements, anyone would....so why should I pick THEM?!?!?  I was impressed and 2 face to face interviews later I was hired on.

I worked as an intern, sometimes 5 hours a day others two and a half. I never really participated in extra Key events because I had a ton of work to do and not nearly enough time to do it and I was a full time student with no time to spare.

Now that I am full time,  I decided to participate in our "Neighbors Make A Difference" day. I happened to be on the longest project. A Habitat for Humanity home that went from 9-3. Other projects were only 2-3 hours long and indoors. I arrived at the site hesitant. I am not one for manual labor. 

Jill Taylor, the PRESIDENT of Key Bank in Utah learned how to build rooms and the inside of a closet!! 

The day was nice and the company was amazing. I can't believe that my company paid me to go out in the community and improve it. Nationally 8,000 Key Bank employees volunteered. I am so impressed that I work for a company that committed so much payroll money in the year of one of the worst recessions, for employees to not be at work in a time when everyone is busy. It is only a few hours a year but how many other companies can boast that? Especially 19 years running!?!?! That means the world to me to be part of a company like that. 

Bankers become builders. Raquel rocks the nail polish, designer sunglasses, and popped collar as she secures the wall to the stud.

As I said, my project was Habitat for Humanity but nationally people volunteered at shops that make furniture for people that need it, animal shelters, homeless shelters, food banks, ymca's, habitat for humanity , schools, the list goes on and on....

It was fun to see a bunch of bankers become builders!!! What added to the great experience was that my bank sponsored the house we built. It is amazing to think that someone will have a house because of my bank. Because of the hours we put in, and the money donated, someone can have some sort of stability in their lives, more importantly, a place for their children to have stability. 

I am still on such a high. I have scrapes up and down my arms, my fingers are raw, my hand hurts, but I am on a high. I haven't felt better in a long long time.  I am grateful for wonderful organizations like Key Bank that realize banking is important, but so is the community your bank resides in!!! Even more, I am grateful I am a Key employee!!!