Whenever Haverhill Bank needs someone to lend a hand with a community activity, Erica LeMire is the first to help out.
LeMire, 38, chairs the bank’s employee activities committee, is captain of its Relay for Life Team and is often out on weekends, representing the bank at community activities. In Haverhill, that ranges from a yearly clean-up day to the annual “River Ruckus Festival” each summer. During Christmastime, LeMire can be found doing her part at the city’s annual Christmas Stroll, a family-friendly event downtown that includes an appearance by Santa Claus to light the Christmas tree.
“Erica is tireless in her volunteering endeavors throughout the bank, and is most times the first to volunteer,” said co-worker Theresa Parker, a loss-mitigation specialist.
Haverhill Bank President and CEO Thomas Mortimer agreed: “Erica works hard to think of new, fun ways that the bank and its employees are able to give back to our community.”
LeMire helped come up with the idea for a monthly “Jeans Day,” in which employees pay $5 each to wear jeans to work, with proceeds benefiting local charities, and she is heading into her fourth year with the Relay for Life fundraiser, which benefits the American Cancer Society.
When it’s a community activity, her children, Alexis, 21, and Tom, 15, and her husband, Derek Courtney, often join in.
In addition, LeMire shares her culinary skills by baking a birthday cake for any co-worker who wants one.
“I’m pretty much baking cakes all the time,” LeMire commented. “I think there’s 40 employees in this building.”
The most-requested cake by far, she said, is her chocolate turtle cake – a chocolate cake with fudge frosting in the middle, drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce on top.
LeMire, who has worked at the bank for 12 years, said her team spirit reflects how she views her job.
“My feeling is if you have to be someplace all day long, you should like where you are. I try to motivate everyone to enjoy their time here,” she said.
The same spirit applies to volunteering. Even if someone can’t spend the entire weekend volunteering at an event, they can put in an hour “and do a lot of good,” she said.
Most of the time, she said, civic groups just assume LeMire will help out with an event in Haverhill.
“My name is already on the list,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t even think they ask.”
