Pen Air donates $25,000 to support SCI's Brain Bags

  • January 23, 2019
  • /   Shannon Nickinson
  • /   early-learning
Pen Air check presentation at SCI

Pen Air Federal Credit Union has become a signature partner in the Studer Community Institute’s early learning outreach efforts.


The credit union presented a $25,000 gift to SCI recently in support of Brain Bags, an early learning initiative.

The Brain Bags program is one of the cornerstones of SCI’s efforts to become an Early Learning City. This involves several initiatives, all in which work together to achieve the goal to increase kindergarten readiness scores to be the best in the state, and for SCI, that begins with early brain development.


Brain Bags — launched in 2017 with a grant from IMPACT 100 Pensacola Bay Area — are early literacy gift bags given to new mothers before they leave the hospital. They include: a storybook, “P is For Pelican, the ABCs of Pensacola,” which uses landmarks in our community to build letter awareness and encourage family reading; Baby Steps, a baby book that can be personalized to help parents track early brain development milestones in the first three years of life; a toy; and a binder of community resource information and partners to help support parents. It includes library locations, screen time guidelines, Thirty Million Words Initiative teaching points, healthy lifestyle advice for first year of life, and more.

The Brain Bags are assembled by Arc Gateway’s Pollack Industries. Arc offers life- and work-skills training for adults with developmental disabilities to help them contribute to the community. Assembling, storing and delivering the Brain Bags is now one of their contracted jobs.


Pen Air’s gift helps the ensure the sustainability of the Brain Bag project. Every mother who gives birth in Escambia County, an estimated 5,000 per year, receives a Brain Bag while at the hospital. These mothers are given a presurvey to rate themselves on how well prepared they feel they are to help their child’s brain develop, and then they are given a postsurvey after receiving the Brain Bag materials. The scores have moved from a presurvey average of six, to a postsurvey average of a nine out of 10.

“You save a child’s life when you invest in their brain development,” said Quint Studer CEO and Founder of SCI. “We’re pleased to be partnering with Pen Air once again, because what they are doing today is giving us a donation that’s going to impact 1,000 mothers and their children.”

Financial literacy and education are key initiatives for Pen Air and how the credit union serves its members and the community. To date, Pen Air has given $31,594.36 to further the efforts of early brain development.

“A great way to enhance a life is to start at birth,” said Stu Ramsey, president and CEO of Pen Air. “In the spirit of Communerosity, we are thrilled to make an investment today in our children because we understand the importance of early learning.”

To learn more about Brain Bags and the early learning initiative, visit StuderI.org. To help support SCI’s work, click here.
About Studer Community Institute: The Studer Community Institute is focused on improving our community’s quality of life. We do that by focusing on skill building for employees and businesses and creating tools and interventions to help parents and caregivers understand the role of parent talk in healthy early brain development in the first three years of life.

At Pen Air Federal Credit Union, respect is a guiding principle.  As the largest and oldest credit union headquartered in Pensacola, Florida, with $1.4 billion in assets, Pen Air is dedicated to enhancing lives through exceptional service, strength, and financial solutions.  With sixteen locations in Northwest Florida and Southeast Alabama, Online and Mobile banking, we provide a worldwide reach. Pen Air is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial institution, serving the community and improving lives since 1936.  For more information, visit penair.org or call (850) 505-3200/toll free (877)4PENAIR.
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