EBI is a member of the Environmental Bankers Association (EBA), a non-profit trade association that represents the financial services industry, including bank and non-bank financial institutions, insurers, asset management firms, and those who provide services to them.
The EBA meets in a new city every 6 months. To give back to our gracious host cities, the EBA began a tradition of kicking off the conference with a local volunteer opportunity. The first EBA Gives Back occurred in June of 2008 in Utah and has been a part of the agenda ever since.
EBI Consulting sponsored the volunteer activity for the January 2019 meeting in New Orleans. After our initial charity fell through, we were referred to Ms. Gloria and her Community Garden, a short walk from the French Quarter.
Ms. Gloria began her community garden to help revitalize a piece of land that had been abandoned in her neighborhood. She provides free, fresh food to the local community, cooks for them weekly, hosts paint nights and movie nights for families, and is always finding new ways to teach her neighbors new skills and trades. Formerly a dress designer and a custom steel fixture designer, she is now retired and pays for much of her garden out of her social security check. Local churches and the United Way have helped her build a fence and provide some physical support, but she is largely unfunded.
EBI joined Ms. Gloria early on a chilly morning to help her paint pots for citronella plants that she will use to ward off the mosquitos in the summer. Over the course of the morning we also helped her repair broken chairs, clean out a shed, and haul trash. EBI also donated the citronella plants for this project.
Ms. Gloria is working on paving the middle of the garden with a yellow brick road – an idea she thought up to help raise funds to support the garden. She will host a fundraiser to allow local companies and families to sponsor a brick. The EBA group painted the hand-made bricks yellow and donated to add our company names to the project.
Later in the conference, the EBA held a fund drive for Ms. Gloria and raised another $850 to contribute to keeping her community garden alive.
A huge thank you to Hannah Brassard, Marketing Specialist, for finding and coordinating this opportunity, arranging last minute details and being available over the weekend to make sure everything ran smoothly. Participants included Amanda Wimble and Mike McGeehan from EBI Consulting, as well as representatives from EDR, Wasatch Environmental, GRS, August Mack, Nova Consulting, Partner Engineering, ATC Group Services, and ECS Consulting.
To learn more about the garden, visit Ms. Gloria’s website today and follow her on Instagram.
