Dennis Acker believes that charity begins at home – most specifically, the home base of the Gloucester branch of Sovereign Bank. In his nomination for a 2013 Community Bank Hero Award, his nominator notes that he and his staff are among the most successful in the bank’s retail division, in spite of the many economic challenges that Gloucester, a fabled fishing town, has faced in recent years.
Acker began his banking career at BayBank in Boston in 1997. BayBank was known for its focus on the retail customer, and Acker says he “ thoroughly loved it,” serving as a teller and as a district service assistant manager. Sovereign became the parent bank several mergers later, and Acker has been working in Gloucester in the Main Street branch since 2000.
Acker’s work with the Gloucester Pride Stride Committee, an annual five-mile walk to benefit the region’s non-profits, includes facilitating and organizing the walk, and recruiting walkers to support them. Active with the initiative since 2002, he is president and a board member.
He is usually the contact person with whom people register, and he notes that it gives him the opportunity to learn more about which people and agencies in the state are taking responsibility for the philanthropic effort. Last year, 25 Cape Ann non-profits benefitted from the walk, which covered fairly much every demographic on Cape Ann. The walk raises roughly $35,000 a year. Last year, the 25th anniversary of the walk, the committee marked its million-dollar milestone in fundraising.
Acker is involved in six community based organizations, and is a board member of them, as well as an officer in the newly-formed Gloucester chapter of Business Network International. In addition, he is a board member of Action Incorporated, a nonprofit umbrella agency for multiple community projects, and The Open Door Food Pantry, an initiative to feed Cape Ann residents and to provide healthy snacks to Cape Ann schoolchildren.
Finally, he is a monthly reader for the First “R” Foundation, which serves kindergarten and first graders on Cape Ann, and a participant in the COMPASS program since 2011, which teaches financial skills and allows kids who drop out of high school to qualify for a Gloucester High School diploma.
