A Moving Year in Moving Pictures: A Small Business Video Series

By David Chubak, Head of U.S. Retail Banking December 07, 2020 01:00 PM

The holiday season presents an opportunity to reflect upon the year - and it would be an understatement to say that there is much to look back on in 2020.

When I reflect on the year, one of the most meaningful highlights was our all-out effort to support the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Thousands of colleagues worked around the clock to help more than 30,000 small businesses across the country that collectively employ more than 300,000 people.

While we have shared our PPP story with data, at its core, banking is about people and our dedication to enabling them to grow. Behind the numbers and statistics there are stories, many of them moving, about the small business owners struggling to navigate a health and economic crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes.

We wanted to tell their stories so we created a video series.

The stories we've chosen to highlight span the country and range from a youth ballet school to an iconic chicken restaurant, an autism center and a three-truck shipping company. You will also hear from some of the bankers who helped these small businesses and non-profit organizations obtain their PPP loans.

In our first video, Maryland Youth Ballet Principal Deidre Byrne describes how prior to the pandemic the school would see up to 900 students per week, and that their loan helped them retain teaching staff and find a way to bring students back safely.

"If we hadn't been able to receive this PPP loan, we wouldn't have been able to keep dancing," she adds.

In another video that spotlights the Nassau Suffolk Services for Autism, you will see how the lives of our bankers can be closely tied to the communities they serve – and how relief arrived just in time at the center in Commack, New York to "keep life as normal, as structured, and as functional as possible for the individuals and families we serve," according to NSSA Associate Executive Director Kathy Mannion.

As we introduce new videos in the coming weeks, we will update this page. For now, I invite you to follow this link to our first video highlighting the Maryland Youth Ballet in Silver Spring.