9.19.08 Community Shredding Event to Benefit Children's Study Home

A community shredding event will be held on Saturday, October 11, 2008 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Hampden Bank, 220 Westfield Street, Route 20, West Springfield , MA . The public is invited to bring boxes of documents for shredding. A copy size paper-sized box will cost $10.00 to shred, and there is no need to remove paperclips, staples, hanging file folders, etc. Other size containers will be priced accordingly. The proceeds of the event will benefit The Children's Study Home. The shredding event is being sponsored by Pro-Shred Security of Wilbraham and Hampden Bank.

Roughly seven million people become victims of identity theft every year. That equals 19,178 people per day, 799 per hour. The incidence of victimization soared 80% between 2002 and 2003 according to a study by Harris Interactive. A survey by the Identity Theft Resource Center indicates that victims now spend an average of 600 hours recovering from this crime, often over a period of years.

Pro-Shred's mobile shredding truck will be parked in the Hampden Bank parking lot to perform "demolition duties" on site. The shredders on the trucks are industrial-strength machines that can pulverize 1,000 to 10,000 pounds of paper and other media per hour. All shredded materials are recycled. Fifty document boxes will be available to the first people requesting them at Hampden Bank in West Springfield . Confidential documents to consider shredding include bank statements, credit card statements, cancelled checks, medical records, legal papers, and income tax files.

For more information, please contact Suzanne Boniface at 413-739-5626 or email her at sboniface@studyhome.org, or Deb Garvin, Hampden Bank, 413-452-5270, or email Deb at garvin@hampdenbank.com.