Pete Maglione (left, CFA Atlanta Chapter President), Karen McCarthy, (center, CURE’s Patient and Family Services Manager) and Stacy Odendahl (right, CFA Atlanta Chapter Vice President).

The Atlanta Chapter of the Commercial Finance Association recently donated $2,500 to CURE Childhood Cancer, an Atlanta-based charity, along with 40 tickets to a Braves’ game so children and their families could attend a game. Our relationship with CURE began in 2012 and has matured into both fundraising and volunteering opportunities.

“We wanted to support this worthy charity and have done it in several ways,” explained Todd Runge, senior vice president MidAtlantic/Southeast, Bridge Bank, N.A.. “The first was to donate the proceeds from certain chapter event activities as well as purchase several dozen tickets to a Braves game. These were provided to the charity so they could pass them out to the families of affected children. The tickets were to the same game as our annual chapter event.”

The Chapter board also helps serve lunch one Tuesday each month during the year. CURE staff and CFA volunteers deliver and serve lunch to children and their families who are admitted to the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Egleston and Scottish Rite campuses). Each Chapter board member signs up for a month and is responsible for staffing the event with volunteers to prepare plates for the children, family members and hospital staff.

“Offering opportunities for our members to get personally involved not only improves the profile for our Chapter, and CFA National, but it allows our members additional opportunities to work in and support the community in which we operate. We continue to review other possible charities to provide more avenues for support by our members.”