Florence Bank recently announced a contribution of $50,000 to the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley to be used over a five-year period to build a 7,000-square-foot theater.
The school is a regional public charter school serving 400 students grades 7 to 12, from over 60 towns throughout Western Massachusetts.
John F. Heaps Jr., president and CEO of Florence Bank, says the bank “greatly admires” the work of the charter school, and is pleased to be among the school’s strongest champions.
“When the school’s original founders came to the Bank, we were able to help with the financing that got this great idea institution off the ground,” he said, adding, “And we’ve been proud to support them and their mission along the way.”
“After 19 plus years of providing public middle and high school students from Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin counties with the finest performing arts curricula in the Valley, our dream of having our own theater will come true,” said Scott Goldman, head of school.
Originally located in a former public school in the town of Hadley, the school relocated to South Hadley in its 10th year of operation.
Florence Bank is a mutually owned savings bank chartered in 1873.