Bankers organize letter-writing effort designed to comfort New York kids

Northwestern Financial Review, Jan 1, 2002 by Dullum, Justin

During a casual encounter at an Independent Community Bankers of America executive meeting, Pam and Bill Rosacker and Norm Jardine got to talking about Sept. 11-an obvious subject being Jardine's bank, United Orient, is eight blocks from ground zero.

The Rosakers - Bill is president of United Bankers Bank in Bloomington, Minn., and Pam owns First National Bank in Bagley, Minn. - listened while Jardine described what it was like to emerge from the subway every morning to confront the unmentionable smell of the rubble, and how he and his employees were holding the bank together with raw elbow grease and ingenuity.

Pam told Jardine that Midwesterners-so physically detached from the events-feel helpless and that she herself felt there was nothing she could do to directly make a difference. Jardine said, "Well, there might be."

He explained that students of a school near ground zero, Stuyvesant High School, were relocated to different schools. Many are now separated from their friends and have to live away from home. Jardine saw these kids as somewhat forgotten, with the problem of allocating relief funds to adults garnering most of the national attention.

He asked the Rosackers to do something for these kids and suggested they instigate a letter writing campaign. School kids in Minnesota might write letters of encouragement to their peers in New York and let them know they're not forgotten.

When the Rosackers returned home, Pam took over. She and her sister, who co-owns First National, contacted Minnesota schools in four cities: Bagley, Apple Valley, Sauk Center and Alexandria. Pam soon had more than 200 letters ready to be sent to kids directly affected by the attack on New York.

Jardine offered to receive the letters and deliver them himself, which he did, to alleviate any delays resulting from increased security put in place to thwart the spread of Anthrax.

The letters, written by kids of all ages, are touching. Many are simply words of encouragement and an invitation to correspond. Others are confessions of confusion followed by words of support.

They particularly strike me in two ways. The first is these kids have reacted to the two-dimensional televised broadcast of Sept. 11 with the same speechlessness as adults."I don't know what to say, but I hope you are all right" is a common theme in the letters.

The second comes from the perspective of a trade journalist in that the letters technically have little to do with banking (although one could call them a paper exchange between the president of a $91 million bank in New York and the owners of a $61 million bank in Minnesota).

In a way, the letters share a similarity with loaning money to buy bricks for Main Street or shingles for homes. Community banks inherently deal in the less tangible, yet valuable currency of progress. With the displaced kids in New York, anything that aids the restoration of normalcy and calm can be chalked up as progress.

"It's a community bank in Minnesota helping a community banker in New York deal with the kids in his area" said Bill. I thing it's even simpler than thatit's just people creatively helping others.

"Bill and I sent money into the relief fund and I got real mad when I found Gut the Red Cross was having problems. With this we feel like we've really touched somebody instead of just an organization," said Pam-and she's almost right. More than a feeling, they have touched people.

Kudos to the Rosackers and the school kids for finding a way to directly reach victims of Sept. 11. And kudos to Norm Jardine-a banker with enough couth to think about and help others while working overtime to keep his own ship a-float.

By Justin Dullum, Associate Editor