Connie Burwick (Left), Manager of Gate City Bank in

Hettinger and Terry Anderson (Right), RN, Chief Nursing
Officer of WRRMC, stand next to the donated carseats and
booster seats.)

By Cole Benz
Record Editor
cbenz@countrymedia.

Through a program called Random Acts of Kindness, the Hettinger branch of Gate City Bank gave West River Health Services a donation of four car seats, and two booster seats.

Random Acts of Kindness was something started a few years ago by the corporate offices of Gate City Bank as tool for the individual branches to give back to their communities.

“The acts of kindness is really about giving back to all of our communities and supporting all of our communities,” Amy Durbin said. Durbin works with the marketing department of Gate City Bank. Durbin said the program is not isolated to a few branches, but it is practiced company wide. “We do the acts of kindness throughout all of our communities at every location,” Durbin said.

In 2014, Durbin said Gate City Bank had over 250 acts of kindness company wide. And although she didn’t have the 2015 numbers tallied yet, she did say that on Feb. 17 of last year they saw over 170 acts of kindness, in that one day.

The type of donation is up to the individual offices to decide, according to Durbin. It is based on what that community needs the most, and she said the acts of kindness can be either a charitable donation, or in the form of volunteer work. Connie Burwick, of Gate City Bank in Hettinger, said that when the office was trying to decide what they wanted to do she reached out to Cheryl Dix and the Adams County Social Services department to figure out if the county had a specific need.

That conversation led to discussions with the Emergency Services department and Burwick found out that there was a need for baby and toddler safety devices.

At the hospital, babies are not allowed to leave without a car seat restraint device, and on a few occasions families have been without one. And given the proximity to the nearest retail store that supplies carseats, families can be put in a difficult position.

So they decided a good route of donation and act of kindness would be to supply the hospital with a few units, in case families needed one. 

Booster seats were also purchased.

The items were brought to the hospital on Dec. 28 and West River will disperse the units as necessary. “Any chance that our employees
have the opportunity, we encourage them to give back,” Durbin said. “It’s a part of our philosophy, of who we are.”