On Wednesday, May 14, 2014, the local KeyBank closed in order for the staff to go out into the community and say ‘thank you.’ Every year, KeyBank hosts Neighbors Make A Difference Day and donates the time and talents of their employees to non-profits all over the nation for half a day.

“We’ve helped the public library shelve books, cleaned out the flower beds at the Father Ishmael Gromoff Senior Center, processed and logged artifacts at the Museum of the Aleutians, picked up trash in the bunkers at Fort Schwatka, sponsored a barbecue fundraiser for Camp Qungaayux, and even shepherded 1st graders for their Dockside Discovery field trip,” stated Belinda Sunderland, the manager of KeyBank in Unalaska.

This year, four bank employees helped the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services clinic clear out a space on their second floor to make room for an acupuncture studio. Along with four employees from the clinic and under the supervision of Ramona Thompson, the crew hauled boxes full of clinic records to their conex for storage and took several trips to the landfill to drop off obsolete office equipment.

“We have a connection to everyone here. The people of Unalaska are our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers, and even for a few, our relatives. Key is a large bank whose headquarters are in Ohio, but whose heart is in the people who work in cities and small towns like ours,” Sunderland added.

"We were very honored that the KeyBank employees selected the clinic as their non-profit neighbor to help out this year," stated Eileen Conlon Scott, Executive Director of IFHS.  "The KeyBank staff really worked hard clearing a room full of old boxes of files that needed to be burned, as well as obsolete equipment that no longer worked; many trips were made to the dump and to the clinic's storage facility by the employees.  We now have a clean room that will be revamped into a dedicated peaceful/quiet and tranquil acupuncture room for community members to enjoy. And we felt honored that KeyBank felt so strongly about their commitment to helping a non-profit that they closed the bank for the afternoon so their employees could come over and help us."