Gift to seed the Larry Paradis Legacy Fund
OAKLAND, Calif., March 21, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Community Bank of the Bay (CBYAA) and its long time client Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) jointly announced today that through the generosity of one of the bank’s founding shareholders, 10,000 shares of its common stock were donated to Disability Rights Advocates. This gift, valued at approximately $51-thousand at the time of the donation, helped establish the Larry Paradis Legacy Fund, named after DRA’s Founder who passed away in 2016.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f5186fa7-75aa-4f4e-ac4a-238168356961.
“Community Bank of the Bay is proud of its long relationship with Disability Rights Advocates, a truly remarkable organization committed to ensuring equal opportunity for people with all types of disabilities. Our bank’s founding principle of equal economic opportunity shares DRA’s commitment to a barrier-free world where all people are encouraged and able to follow their dreams,” said Bill Keller, President and CEO of Community Bank of the Bay. “We have had the great privilege of knowing DRA founder Larry Paradis and we are very pleased that his legacy fund is now a shareholder of our Bank. We will work very hard to ensure that this investment will help DRA continue his work which has had such a positive impact on the lives of millions of people in our country.”
“DRA is proud of our 10+ year partnership with Community Bank of the Bay and humbled by the generosity of this gift to support our Larry Paradis Legacy Fund,” said Sid Wolinsky, DRA Co-Founder and Supervising Attorney. “Our late Executive Director, Larry, always took on the biggest, most important disability rights battles. Thanks to Community Bank of the Bay, DRA will be able to continue that legacy: ensuring health care, employment, transportation, and safety for people with disabilities across the nation.”
About the Larry Paradis Legacy Fund:
DRA’s beloved Co-Founder and Executive Director, Larry Paradis, died unexpectedly in July of 2016. With the blessing of Larry’s family, DRA has established the Larry Paradis Legacy Fund to ensure that Larry’s vision for DRA marches forward. Larry was a bold visionary. He pursued the big, risky, class-action cases that other firms wouldn’t touch and always delivered for the disability community. If you use a wheelchair or scooter and can freely travel because the corners have curb ramps, Larry did that. If you are blind and can access websites to shop or read books, larry did that. If you are deaf and can watch captioned movies at your local theater, Larry did that. If you have a disability and can enter your polling place and use the voting machine privately, Larry did that. The Legacy Fund will be directly applied to continue Larry’s important work at DRA: pursuing the most cutting-edge, highest-impact, precedent-setting cases. This fund will enable DRA to continue, in Larry’s own words, to “change institutions and the entire fabric of American society so that people with disabilities have a fair shot at being full participants.” You can learn more and contribute to the Legacy Fund here: www.dralegal.org/larry-paradis-legacy/.
About Community Bank of the Bay:
Community Bank of the Bay (OTCBB:CBYAA) serves the financial needs of closely held businesses and professional service firms, as well as their owner-operators and non-profit organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Community Bank of the Bay is a member of the FDIC, an SBA Preferred Lender, and a CDARS depository institution, headquartered in Oakland, with offices in Danville, San Mateo and Campbell, CA. It is also California’s first FDIC-insured certified Community Development Financial Institution and one of only three operating in the Northern California market. The bank is recognized for establishing the Bay Area Green Fund to provide financing to sustainable businesses and projects and supports environmentally responsible values. Additional information on the bank is available online at www.BankCBB.com.
About Disability Rights Advocates:
With offices in California and New York, Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) is the leading nonprofit disability rights legal center in the nation. Its mission is to advance equal rights and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities nationwide. DRA identifies and dismantles barriers in partnership with a broad network of local and national client organizations, representing people with the full spectrum of disabilities including mobility, sensory, cognitive and psychiatric. In the organization’s 23-year history, DRA has taken on more than 450 cases and won almost all—achieving dramatic improvements for people with disabilities seeking health care, employment, transportation, education, disaster preparedness planning, voting and housing. For more about DRA’s mission and impact visit www.dralegal.org.