FORT WAYNE, Ind. (PRESS RELEASE): Allied Payment Network, the industry’s most
progressive provider of online and mobile bill payment services to banks and credit
unions, has created a giving program, “Be an Ally to our Fort Wayne Heroes,” to provide
meals throughout December to hospital healthcare workers in Fort Wayne, where the
company headquarters is located.
Allied CEO and founder Ralph Marcuccilli has enlisted the help of several area companies, and challenges other individuals and businesses in the area to make donations through its GoFundMe fundraiser page. One hundred percent of the funds raised will be used to underwrite the cost of the meals.
According to Marcuccilli, the program is part of the company’s annual community giving
project, and fulfills one of Allied Payment Network’s core values to ‘Do the Right Thing.’
The company, which agreed to match employee contributions dollar-for-dollar, has
already supplied more than 500 meals.
Fort-Wayne-based companies Summit Brands, Sweetwater Sound and Chuck & Lisa
Surack, and Fort Financial Credit Union have donated funds to supply more than 2,000
additional meals.
Jan Vardaman of Gratitude Catering and Tabitha Gray of Mancinos Pizza and Grinders,
both located in Fort Wayne, are preparing the meals, as well as making additional meal
contributions. A growing list of corporate sponsors is on the Allied GoFundMe page.
Since March 2020, Allied has provided meals to local frontline heroes and food pantries
to assist them during the pandemic. According to Marcuccilli, this latest effort is to “show
appreciation to local healthcare workers who have been on the front lines battling
COVID-19 for the past nine months. Many are making significant personal sacrifices in
time spent away from their families, putting their own health at risk, yet rising to the
occasion.”
Meal delivery began on Friday, December 4 to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne and will
continue to local healthcare facilities Lutheran and Parkview Hospitals until the funds
are depleted. According to Lynne Sordelet, a cardiac ICU nurse at Lutheran Hospital, “It
has been amazing to see the community support for frontline workers, and this act of
kindness truly means a lot.”
