Community

Community is all about us working together. It’s what makes our community a great place to live.

At BankCherokee, we know how important community is after more than 100 years in the neighborhood. Today, everything we do reflects our commitment to our communities, from the loans we provide to individuals and businesses to employees volunteering for local non-profits to services we provide our customers, such as document shredding and financial education seminars. We are proud to be values driven, relationship focused, family oriented and community engaged. Times may change, but our values stay the same. For more information related to our performance, please see the Bank’s Community Reinvestment Act Digital File

The year 2020 started like any other year; who knew it would bring us a global pandemic? Well, COVID-19 may have forced some changes, but it didn’t stop us from giving back to our communities. We hope you enjoy our highlights from 2020!

At BankCherokee, giving back is the easy part of a sometimes complicated business. Here’s a glimpse at how we helped our communities during 2018.

Three times a year we partner with Shred-Right, a AAA NAID Certified shredding company, to shred confidential and sensitive papers FREE of charge for BankCherokee customers. We combine the shred events with a food drive. We have partnered with Finnegan’s Reverse Food Truck, so bring your food or cash donations to show support! BankCherokee matches food donations brought in during the events!

FINNEGANS profits go to support The Food Group’s Harvest for the Hungry program – an innovative program in which fresh produce is purchased from local farms and is then distributed to local food shelves.

Express Bike Shop, a social enterprise of Keystone Community Services, is a local business that refurbishes and sells used bikes through an apprenticeship program that develops the work, leadership and entrepreneurship skills of youth in the community.

Each year BankCherokee supports this great program and collects used bikes to donate to Express Bike Shop. In 2016 we collected 90 bikes!

The City of Saint Paul has over 170 parks and BankCherokee is the steward of Douglas Park which is located just 2 blocks east or our Smith Avenue location. We are the caretakers of this charming little park in our neighborhood that was formerly home to Douglas Elementary School, where our very own Scott Larsen attended school back in the day! We keep Douglas Park looking beautiful during the spring, summer and autumn seasons by removing litter, weeding the playground area & gardens.

Mission of Metro Paint-A-Thon

Since 1984, the Metro Paint-A-Thon has helped low-income seniors and people with permanent physical disabilities continue to live independently in their own homes. Each August, teams of volunteers paint home and garage exteriors in the Twin Cities area for those who can no longer physically do such maintenance and who cannot afford to hire a contractor. The program restores not only the homes that are painted, but the homeowners’ sense of pride in their property and their community. Volunteers have completed 6,437 exterior home-based painting projects since 1984.

Community is all about us working together and BankCherokee was very proud to participate in the 2017 Minnesota Bankers Community Impact Week. Here’s where Team Cherokee was the week of September 18th.

• Monday, Sept. 18th – The Family Place.
• Tuesday, Sept. 19th – Jeremiah Place.
• Wednesday, Sept. 20th – Ralph Reeder Food Shelf.
• Thursday, Sept. 21st – Little Bohemia Neighborhood Association.
• Friday, Sept. 22nd – Salvation Army W. 7th Food Distribution.

Launched by the Minnesota Bankers Association, the Community Impact Week creates an opportunity for banks to highlight the many volunteer opportunities available to help build stronger local communities.

No child should be hungry, but in Minnesota 200,000+ of them are. Join us in the fight against child hunger. BankCherokee is very excited to partner with Every Meal (formerly The Sheridan Story) by sponsoring Adams Spanish Immersion School. Each Friday during the school year, BankCherokee will provide food packs to students and their families to help cover food shortages that may exist in the home during the weekend. We are honored that The Sheridan Story reached out to us and shared the great work they are doing in our communities and we are excited to sponsor Adams Spanish Immersion School.

If you would like to sponsor a school, volunteer, or make a donation, you can visit their website at www.Everymeal.org.