Embrace Home Loans Wraps Up Remarkable Year of Giving Back

Despite Covid-19 shutdowns, company employees found ways to continue helping their communities in 2020

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Jan 27, 2021, 13:16 ET

MIDDLETOWN, R.I., Jan. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Embrace Home Loans, a top-ranked mortgage lender, sponsored and participated in many philanthropic endeavors throughout 2020, including fundraisers, making masks, food drives and helping military veterans in the communities the company serves.

"We've made it a priority to give back to the community by volunteering and supporting a variety of charitable causes," said Embrace Home Loans CEO Dennis Hardiman. "While COVID-19 posed a few obstacles in 2020, our team members found a way to overcome those challenges and continue our philanthropic efforts. It's a testament to Embrace's culture of giving to others in need."

Every year, the company matches employee donations to the charitable causes of the employee's choice up to $2,500. In 2020, Embrace donated over $66,000 to match employee contributions to a variety of charities and philanthropic causes.

Each year during the month of May, employees at all branches celebrate Embrace's anniversary by spending a week volunteering at nonprofit organizations across the country. The company also commits a percentage of its earnings to charity every year. Over the past decade, Embrace and its employees have donated over $25 million to many worthy causes.

The following list highlights some examples of Embrace employees giving back in 2020:

Sam Atapour, branch manager at Embrace's Ashburn, Virginia office, spearheaded several events for ER workers, firefighters and others on the frontlines of COVID-19, as well as to families in need in Virginia. Atapour worked with local restaurants to organize food drives for first responders, hospital staff, local schoolchildren, shelters for abused women, as well as Meals on Wheels.
Patrick Holland, a company vice president based in Fairfax, Virginia, worked with Veterans Moving Forward, a Dulles, Virginia-based nonprofit organization that raises and provides service dogs for veterans with physical and/or mental health challenges at no cost to the veteran. Holland personally donated a total of $6,000 to the nonprofit during 2020, as well as over $12,000 to other area nonprofits that help veterans and children with disabilities.
Heidi Leonard, branch manager of Embrace's West Springfield, Massachusetts office, helped create a group to make protective masks for local first responders and others in need. The group, Mask Makers for Westfield, was able to sew more than 2,000 masks last year and raised nearly $3,000 to purchase N95 masks for local first responders, nursing homes, courthouse employees and other municipal workers.
Embrace's Middletown, Rhode Island office provided more than 9000 face masks to public schools in Middletown, Newport and Portsmouth to protect teachers, staff and students. Also, retail branches donated over 15,000 masks to non-profits and organizations in local communities throughout the East Coast.
Michele Welch, senior loan officer with the company's West Springfield, Massachusetts branch, worked with the REALTOR^® Association of Pioneer Valley (RAPV) and the Massachusetts Association of Realtors^® to arrange for the donation of masks to Christina's House, an organization that provides transitional housing for homeless mothers and their children as well as education and emotional, spiritual and physical support.
Embrace sponsored a walk to defeat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and helped to raise over $209,000 for the ALS Association Rhode Island Chapter, which set a new record. A short Facebook video on The Walk Your Way to Defeat ALS can be viewed here.
David Aikman a loan officer with Embrace's Fairfax, Virginia office, coordinated the Fairfax office's sponsorship of the Stars and Stripes Golf Tournament, hosted by the Veterans Association of Real Estate Professionals (VAREP) of Northern Virginia. Aikman, a VAREP board member, sponsored some of his veteran clients in the tournament as a way to show gratitude for their service to our country.
Alexandra Fortin, an actress and nanny based in New York City, organized and led Embrace-sponsored "online recess" events filled with fun activities for the children of its employees who attend school remotely due to the pandemic. Over the holidays, the children received holiday Zoom calls.
Embrace donated $7,000 and 900 pounds of food to the Martin Luther King Community Center Thanksgiving Drive. For Christmas, the company donated $1800 to the Martin Luther King Community Center and Lucy's Hearth, which helps children and their families who are experiencing homelessness due to economic hardship, family crisis, divorce, eviction, and severe shortage of safe, affordable housing.

About Embrace Home Loans

Founded in 1983, Embrace Home Loans is a prominent mortgage lender that provides borrowers and financial institutions with an exceptional mortgage experience. Licensed in 49 states and the District of Columbia, Embrace has been recognized seven times as one of the Best Medium-sized Companies to Work for in America by Fortune and five times as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in America by Inc. The company has also been recognized fourteen times as one of the Best Places to Work in Rhode Island, as the Most Community Involved Company in Rhode Island, and with the Leadership Excellence Award by Providence Business News. The company is based in Middletown, Rhode Island. For more information, please visit www.embracehomeloans.com.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Henry Drennan
Strategic Vantage Marketing and Public Relations
(615) 497-8358
[email protected]

Mary McGarity
Strategic Vantage Marketing and Public Relations
(203)260-5476
[email protected]

SOURCE Embrace Home Loans