Save the bay

Embrace Home Loans Dives Deep to Support Save the Bay RI

Middletown, RI – On the day before the 37^th Annual Save the Bay (STB) Swim, Embrace Home Loans’ employee Kelly Kittel initiated a “jeans day.”  Embrace often has a jeans day to raise money for colleagues, worthy causes and friends in need. This is a day when employees donate $3 or more for a good cause and the privilege of dressing down.

Kittel is adamant that Save the Bay’s efforts to restore and preserve Narragansett Bay are as critical. She agrees progress has been made, she is quick to add,“there is still much work to be done. This year in particular presented challenges for Save The Bay’s efforts as a whole. First, Hurricane Sandy severely damaged their Education Center & Aquarium in Newport.  Then, due to sequestration, the navy base withdrew their permission to start the swim at the War College, forcing STB to change to a triangular course beginning and ending in Jamestown.  July 20 marked the 37^th year of STB’s largest and most-loved fundraiser, yet many swimmers opted out because of the new course. And finally, a succession of beach closures made it difficult to find clean water in which to train.”

Not only were Kittel and Embrace able to raise nearly $1,300 for the long-standing campaign; two generations of Kittels represented Embrace in the annual swim. Kelly, who swam for her 13^th time, was joinedby her 23 year-old daughter Hannah, who swam for her 6^th time, and her 20 year-old son Micah, participating for his second time. Swimming with her children means a lot to Kittel, she is teaching all of her five children to make the world a better place.  As the expression goes, quotes Kittel “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”