Bridgehampton National Bank today presented a $10,000 grant to the Children’s Museum of the East End to help support programming in the Riverside area.
Local families, community advocates, CMEE staff and bank executives gathered at the new BNB branch office in downtown Riverhead to celebrate the occasion.
“We are so thrilled to have the ongoing support of Bridgehampton National Bank. The museum wouldn’t even exist without the bank. They provided our construction loan when we first started back in 2005, and have been supporting us ever since. It is so wonderful to see that as the bank is growing they are helping the community to grow as well,” said Stephen Long, the executive director of CMEE.
“As a very local bank we have always been supportive of great community organizations like the Children’s Museum of the East End,” said Daniel Delehanty, vice president and community reinvestment officer for BNB. “With this check we hope they can enhance their programming in the Riverhead and Riverside communities.”
Two years ago when local community advocates reached out to CMEE looking for quality programming for children, the museum didn’t hesitate and offered to come to the area and provide free, weekly classes for local children ages 2 to 12. They partnered with Riverside Rediscovered, a community-driven for-profit organization, and started offering classes at Riverside Rediscovered’s downtown offices.
“From arts and crafts to STEM and agricultural classes, CMEE has been very generous and we’re very excited that BNB is investing at this level in the community and in this kind of programming ” said Riverside Rediscovered community liaison Siris Barrios.
The grant, said Long, will provide part of the funding for the current programming offered at the Riverside Rediscovered offices and will also contribute towards future programming. The executive director also said that next year the museum is planning to open a satellite location at a Town of Southampton-operated new facility at Ludlum Avenue Park in Flanders.
“This is clearly a community on the way up, and things are looking really, really good,” said Delehanty. “There is a lot of transformation going on in the area and our continued investment in this community, whether by supporting small businesses or local organizations it’s really what we’re all about and we’re here to celebrate that,” he explained.
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