BRAINTREE, Mass., Dec. 3, 2007—Sallie Mae's Braintree-area employees are bringing the holiday spirit to local families and charities: with a matching grant from The Sallie Mae Fund, the 100 local Sallie Mae employees pledged more than $15,000 in November to the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, and participated in numerous community-service programs designed to help local families during the holiday season.
"We are grateful to Sallie Mae Braintree for their many years of support to United Way," said Amanda Angel, director of donor relations, United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley. "Their generous gifts of both dollars and time through volunteer programs have helped to make a difference in the community and improved the quality of life for kids and families in this region."
In addition to the large United Way donation gathered through an elective monthly payroll deduction by Braintree staff, Sallie Mae volunteers in Braintree:
- sorted and packaged food donations at the Red Cross Food Bank in Boston.
- read to first and second graders through the Reading is Fundamental program of Rockland, Mass. The Sallie Mae Fund also donated $3,000 for more than 1,500 books distributed.
- stuffed 2,700 newsletters for the ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) Family Charitable Foundation of Buzzard's Bay, Mass.
- donated bags of groceries to Quincy Community Action Programs, Inc., of Quincy, Mass.
The gift from Sallie Mae employees and The Sallie Mae Fund will help United Way in its effort to improve the quality of life for the region's children and families by uniting effective partners, wise investments, and committed volunteers to tackle the most critical issues strategically and create measurable differences in local neighborhoods.
"Sallie Mae has supported the United Way of Massachusetts Bay for 15 years," said Nina Prikazsky, senior director of operations for Sallie Mae, Braintree. "By electing to have regular donations deducted from their pay, our employees support the advocacy work of the United Way in steady increments all year long. I am very proud to see the contributions of both time and money made by these generous employees."
SLM Corporation (NYSE: SLM), commonly known as Sallie Mae, is the nation's leading provider of saving- and paying-for-college programs. The company manages $160 billion in education loans and serves nearly 10 million student and parent customers. Through its Upromise affiliates, the company also manages $19 billion in 529 college-savings plans, and 8 million members have joined Upromise to help save for college with rewards on purchases at nearly 70,000 places. Sallie Mae and its subsidiaries offer debt management services as well as business and technical products to a range of business clients, including higher education institutions, student loan guarantors and state and federal agencies. More information is available at www.salliemae.com. SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.