BOSTON — An effort to give back to the community requires assembling an all-star team of people for Eastern Bank.
That’s why, along with their employees and customers, they have teamed up with a star-studded group of Boston sports legends.
The local mutual bank has worked with former Boston College and New England Patriots quarterback Doug Flutie for 14 years and added three-time World Series champion David Ortiz to the mix through their “Partners for Good” program within the last year.
“It’s been fantastic,” Flutie said. “They help with my foundations and give back to the community and I love being affiliated with a company that gives back and is really integrated into the community.”
Flutie, who went to Natick High School before joining the football team at Boston College, recalled spending time in North Shore communities like Lynn in his youth and recently.
“I’ve been up to Lynn a lot times for baseball and been at their locations for Eastern Bank appearances,” Flutie said. “It’s just the giving back part of it, being local these communities are so important to me.”
At Eastern Bank’s 200th anniversary celebration at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center Tuesday evening, the company announced a new member of their “Partners for Good” program, U.S. Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Aly Raisman.
“I’m very excited to be partnering with Eastern Bank, they really care and they really want to spread good,” Raisman, a Needham native, said. “I’m very excited, they’re supporting me with some of my charities that I’m passionate about so I’m excited for the partnership.”
“I knew what to do when I was on the baseball field,” Ortiz, a former slugger for the Boston Red Sox, said to the crowd of over 1,600 Eastern Bank employees and board members who attended the event. “But ‘Partners for Good’ is something totally different, this thing is unbelievable.”
Founded in Salem in 1818, Eastern Bank calls itself the oldest and largest mutual bank in the country, that still has a deep roots in the North Shore.
“We started in the North Shore,” CEO Robert F. Rivers said. “We first became Eastern when we were really just three branches in Lynn and Salem.”
The bank still has most of its an employees, around 500, on and around the area of the Lynnway Rivers.
“The North Shore is still the heart of our franchise even though we’ve now expanded,” he said.
After the celebration, the night was wrapped up with a massive 20-foot cake, made by Montilio’s bakery in Brockton, being served to the guests.
“I’ve been talking about this cake for two years,” Rivers said. “When we came in and did this party for the launch of ‘Join us for Good’ last year I looked up at the ceiling and said ‘next year we’re gonna have a 20-foot cake,’ and here it is.”
