T-Mobile Donates $15,000 to the Pittston – The Sunday Dispatch

PITTSTON – In an effort to invest in community’s nationwide, telecommunications provider T-Mobile granted $15,000 to the City of Pittston on Thursday citing the money placed into the beautification project of the city’s Art Walk Loop.

Joe Giannone, senior manager, and Kevin Pierre, rural marketing manager, of T-Mobile were on hand to present the $15,000 check to Pittston Mayor Michael Lombardo and his staff at City Hall.

T-Mobile initiated the grant when they committed $25 million to small towns over the next five years when they partnered with Smart Growth America and Main Street America in creating the Hometown Grant program.

T-Mobile’s goal is to award the grants to at least 100 towns per year maxing out funding projects at $50,000 each.

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“The opportunity to support local communities for us is a huge deal,” Giannone said. “Other companies come out and say this is our brand and try to sell you things. This is something that we’re giving to communities like this one that we feel very good about and there’s no catch to it. It’s a chance for T-Mobile to care about what communities care about.”

Mayor Lombardo accepted the check in appreciation from the City of Pittston stating the money would go to good use.

“It’s always great to receive a check, but I have to say the staff at T-Mobile and their presence over the last 10 or 11 months, as we forge this partnership, is just as important to us and this check is. That’s what it’s really about at the end of the day, the people.”

Pittston Redevelopment Authority’s coordinator Shannon Bonancci, wrote the interface for the T-Mobile grant.

“We really appreciate it so much and T-Mobile has made this whole process easy,” Bonancci said. “Its awesome T-Mobile is investing in communities across the country for projects like this. I don’t really see other phone carriers doing a ton of, so we really appreciate it.”

Joe Chacke, Redevelopment Authority executive director, pointed out the grant falls under the Redevelopment Authority project on behalf of the city.

This isn’t the first time Pittston partnered with T-Mobile. Over this past summer, T-Mobile had underwritten a few projects with the city’s Main Street manager, Mary Kroptavich.

“I absolutely adore T-Mobile and we’ve built a great relationship with all of the staff that came out and I’m looking forward to working T-Mobile with future projects,” Kroptavich said.

“On behalf of the city wholeheartedly, thank you very much for this great support,” Lombardo said. “We want to make sure T-Mobile comes back to see the fruits what this check yields.”