Celebrating Liberty Bank’s 200th Anniversary by Giving Back to Their Communities

Celebrating Liberty Bank’s 200th Anniversary by Giving Back to Their Communities

By Ariana Rawls Fine

Liberty Bank has undergone two centuries of Connecticut’s changes, challenges and history; it continues to serve its customers from its humble origins in 1825 when it started out in a 17th Century wooden cupboard in Samuel Southmayd’s drugstore on Middletown’s Main Street. Today, it stands as the fifth oldest bank in the country. It has more than 50 retail banking branches and loan production offices in 47 towns in Connecticut and Massachusetts and over 800 employees. Liberty Bank continues to center its mission around improving the lives of their customers, teammates and communities for generations to come.

Liberty Bank is celebrating its 200th anniversary with the community by giving back through special events and donations throughout the year.

“The bank had been around for a long time and is well-positioned as a community bank. When I came here in 2019, there was an opportunity for new strategies and technologies,” states David W. Glidden, president and CEO of Liberty Bank and president of the Liberty Bank Foundation. “It has organically grown to over $8 billion in assets, large enough to compete against the national banks but still be nimble locally. Our ownership structure allows us to run the company with a long-range strategy. We are not a publicly traded company but rather our stakeholders are our customers. It enables us to invest more in our community and employees—or teammates as we like to call ourselves.”

That commitment to their teammates has earned the bank “Top Workplace” awards every year from the Hartford Courant since 2012 as well as multiple other “best” awards from Forbes Magazine as a Best-in-State Bank in Connecticut and most recently a J.D. Power Award as the #1 Bank for Customer Satisfaction in the N.Y. Tri-State Region.

“We also make it a place for teammates to successfully grow their careers; it is the next level of obligation to give back to them as well with professional development, internship programs and more,” says Glidden. “If a company has no culture, it has no soul. Yes, we have given record monetary donations and our teammates volunteered for 15,000 hours in the community last year, but we also have fun. It makes me love the company and the job I have even more because there is a real culture of giving, family feel, and great comradery and team building.”

The 200th anniversary was recognized by Gov. Ned Lamont, Lieutenant Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim who issued official proclamations recognizing the milestone anniversary on May 4. In honor of the founding year and the 200th anniversary, the bank introduced their “1825” initiative earlier this year when they donated $1,825 to nonprofits (totaling more than $90,000), provided 300 “birthday” boxes to local food pantries and partnered with Hands on Hartford to bring over 200 healthy lunch kits to children on days they are not in school. In the spring, Liberty Bank also granted $200,000 to Make-a-Wish CT and $50,000 to Make-a-Wish MA.

And the community celebrations continue in the fall with “Socktober” donations for this much-needed clothing item in the winter; hosting an all teammate event where they will build 200 bikes for the Boys & Girls Club of Hartford; and partnering with Max Restaurant Group to donate 200 Thanksgiving dinner boxes to families in need.

Liberty Bank’s brand promise is to “Be Community Kind.” In addition to the bank’s community endeavors, the nearly 30-year-old Liberty Bank Foundation has awarded over $21 million in grants to organizations.

“There is a real stewardship feel to my position,” Glidden adds. “With my CEO hat, I spend time on operations and making it successful now; when I put on my stewardship hat, it is making sure the company is set up to succeed for another 200 years. We are all mindful of that mission.”

Learn more about Liberty Bank at liberty-bank.com.