NorthBay’s connection with Fairview Elementary School goes back just seven years, but what a connection has been created in that time. After the closure of Bransford Elementary in Fairfield, NorthBay needed a new school to adopt for its holiday “Adopt-a-School Program” and chose Fairview, based on the school’s socioeconomic mix. It also partners with Padan Elementary in Vacaville.

As part of the Adopt-a -School program, teachers make out wish lists, and then employees and departments at NorthBay adopt them, striving to fulfill their wishes prior to the winter break. Usually the items on the list are fairly simple—classroom supplies such as chalk, crayons and paper. Sometimes they ask for sports equipment, ink for printers or even computers. And every year for the last six, NorthBay has successfully adopted every classroom and fulfilled those wishes at both schools.

But when Rose Kennedy, NorthBay’s senior director of revenue cycle management adopted a class at Fairview in 2013, she knew she had to do more. She connected with third-grade teacher Laura Gay, who told her that what some of her students needed most were shoes.

Rose developed a plan for her team to buy a new pair of Vans for every child in the classroom.

When Rose died unexpectedly in 2014, her husband Michael established an endowment to ensure that children in need at Fairview will have the chance at new shoes in perpetuity. In 2015, Fairview dedicated a rose garden at the front of the school in memory of Rose Kennedy.

The partnership between NorthBay and Fairview elementary continues with Girls on the Run. As life coach “Joking Julie” Lyons said, “We have a bond.”