Yesterday,  two of our Arizona market presidents went undercover at a Fry’s Food Store, located at 4724 N 20th Street in Phoenix, and picked up the tab on roughly $5,000 worth of groceries. The undercover operation was an effort to help promote Arizona Gives Day and encourage the lucky recipients to “pay it forward” by donating as little as $5 or $10 during Arizona Gives Day to a local nonprofit on Tuesday, April 4th.

For two hours, FirstBank’s own Bryce Lloyd and Joel Johnson posed as Fry’s employees, bagged groceries, and then surprised unsuspecting customers by notifying them that their groceries would be paid for by FirstBank.

“Seeing the reactions on their faces when they found out what we were doing was so much fun, and being able to use this surprise to spread the word about Arizona Gives Day was just the icing on top of an unforgettable day,” said Bryce Lloyd, Phoenix Market President of FirstBank. “We hope we inspired more people to give back by demonstrating how doing something as simple as paying for groceries can make such a big impact.”

“FirstBank donates millions of dollars each year to nonprofits and our employees volunteer countless hours, but we can’t make a big impact by ourselves,” said Joel Johnson, East Valley Market President of FirstBank. “Our hope is that the people we helped today will now have a few extra dollars to donate during Arizona Gives Day on Tuesday.”

FirstBank is the presenting sponsor of Arizona Gives Day, a 24-hour statewide day of giving which has raised over $7.4 million for Arizona nonprofits since 2013. In 2016 alone, over $2.8 million was raised. This year, over 1,000 charities are registered to participate.

Feeling inspired? Help us pay it forward and make a donation to a participating nonprofit today at azgives.org.