First Green Bank Names Five Bank Employees to First Green Foundation Board of Directors

MOUNT DORA, Fla. --- The First Green Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable organization established to promote the environmental mission of First Green Bank in Mount Dora, recently appointed five First Green Bank employees to the foundation’s Board of Directors.

Kenneth LaRoe, founder and chairman of First Green Bank, said new appointments to the First Green Foundation Board include Rhonda DeCandia, Robbie Gossett, Darla Leonard, Denise Smith and Barbara Szczepanski.

LaRoe said the appointments signal the Foundation’s commitment to seeking small effective ways to strengthen the communities First Green Bank serves with a positive approach to environmental awareness.

“Typically, civic and charitable foundations appoint individuals to their boards whose stature in the community add credibility and gravitas, and you have to respect that,” LaRoe said.

“But sometimes those same individuals, while worthy of every respect, have earned for themselves a social and economic status that distances them from the people and institutions their foundations mean to serve,” LaRoe said.

“We wanted to try a different approach, with a board of directors open to significant input from a more youthful and perhaps more energetic and even idealistic perspective,” he said.

“Our new Board appointments are highly enthusiastic, highly committed young banking professionals whose focus on the community and on our environmental goals is not only admirable but infectious,” LaRoe said.

LaRoe said new appointments to the First Green Foundation Board of Directors include:
• DeCandia, who joined First Green Bank last November as Marketing Director and will serve in that capacity for the Foundation;
• Gossett, who joined First Green Bank as a Credit Analyst two years ago because he wanted to take part in the bank’s slogan: “A local bank with a global mission;”
• Leonard, head teller in the Mount Dora headquarters offices of First Green Bank, is likewise one of the bank’s first employees. “Darla Leonard is on the front lines every day, meeting and greeting our customers and providing the sort of customer service that really defines who we are,” LaRoe said.
• Smith, one of the bank’s newest employees, serves as a customer service representative at the Clermont facility. “When we put the call out for employees who might be interested in getting the Foundation up and running, she was the first to respond,” LaRoe explained.
• Szczepanski, who joined First Green Bank a year ago as Chairman Ken LaRoe’s executive assistant, will serve as the Foundation’s secretary.

First Green Foundation recently announced plans to provide grants to home owners and small business owners who want to make their homes and facilities more energy efficient using solar hot water heaters or photo voltaics.