Pictured Below

(left to right) Sarah Ellsworth, Market Manager, Elmira Savings Bank; Bill Rusen, CEO Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services, Jim Knowles, Varsity Football Coach, Cornell University; Tina Lama, First Niagara Insurance Agency; and Bob Lama, First Niagara Insurance Agency

     First Downs for Second Chances
     Announces New Corporate Partner

First Downs for Second Chances a community awareness and fundraising project that supports the work of Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services (CARS) sponsored by First Niagara Insurance and Cornell University football announces that Elmira Saving Bank has joined the effort as an additional corporate sponsor for the upcoming 2008 season.

Elmira Saving Bank President & CEO, Mike Hosey states, “We are very pleased to be a part of this very worthwhile community partnership which supports the work of CARS whose sole mission is the transformation of lives and families affected by addiction in our community. It is not often you have such a great opportunity to partner with three other organizations that stand for all the things that are so outstanding about Ithaca and Tompkins County.”

Bob Lama, Vice President of First Niagara Insurance Agency thinks that Elmira Savings Bank’s participation “will really give us the chance to take this project which was started just last year to ‘the next level’. I have worked with CARS for over 20 years and know the importance of their work. The additional efforts of our new partners at Elmira Savings Bank will allow us to get the word out about that work and to give everyone in our community a chance to support it.”

First Downs for Second Chances began in 2007. It is a community awareness and fund raising project that supports the work of Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services. This project seeks corporate and individual support which supports a fundraising goal based on the number of first downs made by the Cornell football team. Cornell football coach Jim Knowles, also a member of the CARS board of directors, says, “I am really looking forward to working with our new teammates at Elmira Savings Bank to help CARS. I think we will have chance this year to break the first downs record we set just last year. As a board member I see CARS’ work up close so each Cornell first down becomes doubly important to me because I see how much good that support makes in people’s lives.” First Downs for Second Chances raised over $7000 to support the CARS last year.