National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Buffalo Wins $10,000 Grant from MassMutual to Fund Critical Programs

(Springfield, MA) - The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in Buffalo has won a $10,000 grant from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company as part of MassMutual’s national Community Service Award program. The Buffalo NCMEC is one of only ten organizations nationally to win the award. MassMutual made the grant in honor of Amherst native Joseph DiLeo, a MassMutual General Agent and a leading volunteer with the Center.

“Corporate responsibility and community involvement help form the bedrock of our organization; they define and strengthen the core values on which MassMutual was founded,” said Trish Robinson, senior vice president of strategic communications and community responsibility. “Joseph DiLeo reflects MassMutual’s steadfast commitment to the community by taking a leadership role with NCMEC,” she continued.

NCMEC’S mission is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation; to help find missing children; and to assist victims of abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them.

“The partnership with MassMutual allows NCMEC to meet the overwhelming demands of parents, educators and law enforcement to keep our children safe. Crimes against children are at an all time high; the more opportunities we have to educate, the more we benefit our children and keep them safe,” said Edward Suk, NCMEC executive director.

“I am grateful to MassMutual for their partnership by extending this award to NCMEC. This organization is vital to the safety of our children as we strive to keep them safe. Our sole mission is to educate and to make our children safer, one at a time,” said DiLeo.

More than 50 MassMutual agents from across the country applied for a Community Service Award (CSA) this year, up 100 percent from last year.

“We’re seeing a growing need for help in communities across the country and a growing sense of responsibility among our agents and general agents. MassMutual is responding with a twenty percent increase in the CSA program, boosting the number of awards this year from eight to ten,” said Robinson. MassMutual has funded $820,000 in CSA grants since the program began in 1998.