MANCHESTER—October 20, 2010—St. Mary’s Bank recently gave $2,500 to the Sisters of Holy Cross of Manchester to help furnish the classrooms and administrative office of its new Family Learning Center, which opened earlier this month on Dubuque Street. Specifically, the funds cover the cost of a computer, printers, tables and chairs.

“With Manchester’s large immigrant and refugee population, there is more need than ever to provide these families and individuals the tools and resources they need to successfully and confidently become a part of our community,” said Tom Champagne, St. Mary’s Bank’s Director of Community Outreach. “We’re pleased to help the Sisters of Holy Cross obtain what they need to build the Family Learning Center, which offers programs that serve the underserved of our city’s West Side.”

The center acts as a resource and safe haven for Manchester’s economically challenged and minority residents including immigrants and refugees. The work done at the center furthers the mission of the Sisters of Holy Cross by providing education for liberation. The center gives adults in need a place to learn English, time to converse with each other as well as time to begin writing English.

“The Holy Cross Family Learning Center is a place where people of diverse cultures from the West Side come together to initiate or continue their education, and as part of this learning, they will participate in helping develop the center as a place where family values are strengthened, community building is fostered, literacy is nourished, academic performance is raised and diversity respected and celebrated,” said Sister Jacqueline Verville, Director of the Center. “We’re grateful to St. Mary’s Bank for their donation and their commitment to the people of Manchester.”

For more information on Sisters of Holy Cross and its programs, call 603-622-9504 or visit http://www.sistersofholycross.org/.