News Advisory

 CONTACT:  Stacey Gilbert, Director of Media Relations, (617) 695-2300 x172, staceygilbert@citizenschools.org.

Leader in Boston's Financial Community Teams Up with

Middle School Students to Transform Community 

Hundreds of Fidelity Employees and Citizen Schools' Students

Clean-Up East Boston

June 2008 – Boston, MA – On Thursday, June 5^th, eighty employees of Fidelity Investments joined forces with over one hundred middle school students from the Mario Umana Middle School Academy in East Boston to conduct a massive clean-up and beautification of the school and surrounding area.  The project was coordinated by Citizen Schools in conjunction with Fidelity Investments and the school itself.

Citizen Schools is a leading education program that partners with middle schools to extend the learning day with innovative after-school programs.  Fidelity Investments is the lead sponsor of the Citizen Schools campus at the Mario Umana Middle School Academy where Fidelity employees have led many volunteer activities, including Citizen Schools "apprenticeships" where employees have engaged students in a variety of hands-on learning opportunities on topics ranging from music education to financial literacy education.

On Thursday, volunteers completed a wide range of improvements, including repainting basketball and skateboarding courts, installing new planters, removing graffiti, revitalizing a community garden and cleaning-up a nearby park. 

About Citizen Schools

Citizen Schools is a leading national education initiative that uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching skill-building apprenticeships after school.  Our programs blend these real-world learning projects with rigorous academic and leadership development activities, preparing students in the middle grades for success in high school, college, the workforce, and civic life.  Launched in 1995, Citizen Schools currently engages over 3,000 students and 2,400 volunteers each year at 30 school-based sites around the country.   Learn more about our programs, our results, our plans to advance the after-school field, and how to get involved at www.citizenschools.org.

About Fidelity Investments

Fidelity Investments is one of the world's largest providers of financial services, with custodied assets of more than $3.3 trillion, including managed assets of more than $1.5 trillion as of April 30, 2008. Fidelity offers investment management, retirement planning, brokerage, and human resources and benefits outsourcing services to 24 million individuals and institutions as well as through 5,500 financial intermediary firms. The firm is the largest mutual fund company in the United States, the No. 1 provider of workplace retirement savings plans, the largest mutual fund supermarket and a leading online brokerage firm.  For more information about Fidelity Investments, visit www.fidelity.com.