Galston Community Bank has given away more than $4 million since it opened its doors, and on Friday 12th June the branch marked the figure with tea, cake and a room full of the people who helped get it there.
The bank was Sydney’s first Community Bank, a model where profits are returned to the local area rather than sent to shareholders. Two decades on, that arrangement has funded sponsorships, donations and grants across Galston and the surrounding districts, money that has gone toward sporting clubs, schools and community groups that would otherwise be stretched thin.
Friday’s gathering brought together grant recipients, Bendigo Bank representative Tom Woods, Hornsby Shire Mayor Warren Waddell, and the branch’s own staff and board. Chairman of the Board Ralph Steele looked back over the bank’s growth since it first opened, and the branch manager thanked staff, board members and, above all, the customers whose everyday banking makes the giving possible.
The Galston Garden Club sent representatives to describe what the funding has meant for their group. Without it, they said, the club would struggle to keep going at all. Mayor Waddell echoed that point on a shire-wide scale, telling the room the money reaches clubs, sporting grounds and schools right across the district.
Bank staff are already looking ahead to the next milestone. Five million dollars is the next number they want to cut a cake for, and after Friday’s turnout, nobody in the room seemed to doubt it will happen.
