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Zurich in North America is helping New Orleans-area schools prepare for the new school year by providing students and teachers with school supplies and new bicycle parking racks.

Zurich employees and their children between the ages of nine and 17 donated school supplies to the New Orleans Recovery School District through Zurich’s annual KidZ@Work program, which aims to educate children about the insurance industry. In addition to the donations, Zurich in North America provided funds to the Young Leadership Council, which is a non-profit organization sponsoring the Where Ya’ Rack? bike rack initiative. This program has a clear mission: to bring more convenient, secure bicycle parking to the New Orleans area.

“Both of these programs align with Zurich’s corporate giving philosophy of helping children and promoting industry education,” said Jillian Walsh, director of Corporate Giving and Community Relations for Zurich in North America. “With the five-year-anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Zurich wanted to renew its commitment to helping in the revitalization and rejuvenation of the City of New Orleans. In addition, with many schools starting this week, we hope the donations help the New Orleans community start the new school year right.”

Zurich donated schools supplies to teachNOLA, a program that recruits talented teachers and individuals with an intense desire to drive the rebirth of News Orleans by boosting academic achievement for all students. Zurich also donated school supplies to Lagniappe Academies of New Orleans, which are public charter schools, as well as Communities in Schools, which is the nation’s largest dropout prevention organization and helps teachers get the school supplies they need.

Zurich’s donation also provided 20 bike racks that have been placed at five New Orleans area public schools.

“The schools have been very thankful for the donations and the students and faculty are excited to have the new racks,” said Mike Harowski, project leader for Where Ya’ Rack program. “They are already getting tons of use! The racks are helping to further enhance the recovery and improvement of the New Orleans public school system.”