Cup of Grace’s vision from the beginning was to bring the community together. Neighbors helping neighbors, sharing a meal, lifting each other up when crisis hits, and providing food and clothes to people in need. We wanted to partner with local businesses and organizations to bring this vision to life. Just a few months after our founding in 2017, the staff at the Spirit Lake branch of First Interstate Bank (then Inland Northwest Bank) stepped up to support us in our fundraising efforts.
They began with donation collection jars at each teller’s window. That autumn, when we held our first “Warm Clothes, Warm Hearts” coat and clothing drive to stock the Spirit Lake Elementary School Clothing Closet, they offered to be a collection site for coats, clothing, and footwear.
Since then, FIB Spirit Lake has become one of our strongest partners as we expanded the School Clothes Closet program, and added several new programs:
- They served as a collection site for food and money to support our Summer Saturday Free Lunch for Kids program, and our Weekend Bags program.
- Staff donated a large amount of food to the above two programs.
- They have participated in our first two Annual Fundraisers, helping at the cashier booth and emceeing. This year, they transformed the bake sale booth into an old-fashioned bakery. It was awesome!
- The bank is currently a collection site for this year’s “Warm Clothes, Warm Hearts” coat and clothing drive to benefit our expanded School Clothes Closet program. We are now in six schools in Spirit Lake, Athol, and Rathdrum.
- On September 11th of each year, FIB staff volunteers for a worthy cause. This year, we were blessed to have them help us organize and beautify the School Clothes Closet at Timberlake High School. We were also blessed with a small grant from FIB Community Grants to help us buy shelving, tubs and other materials.
We cannot thank the staff at FIB Spirit Lake enough for all of the help, energy and time they have given to Cup of Grace. Their enthusiasm for helping this community is tangible and we are so blessed that they have partnered with Cup of Grace in our vision of “Neighbors helping Neighbors.” We would also like to say “thank you” to FIB Community Grants for blessing us and so many other worthy causes! First Interstate Bank definitely offers us “support we can bank on!”