MANCHESTER – Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation has announced that the New England Parkinson’s Ride in Merrimack was awarded $1,500 from the Foundation’s Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program. Three employees of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care nominated the organization for the award. Funds will be used to support event costs, such as rest and hydration stops, facilities and food.

To commemorate those Harvard Pilgrim members who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, Harvard Pilgrim and the Foundation created the Community Spirit 9/11 Mini-Grant program. This program allows each Harvard Pilgrim employee to award a $500 grant, completely funded by the Foundation, to the local charity of his or her choice each calendar year. Since this community grants program began in 2002, Harvard Pilgrim employees have directed more than $4.6 million to thousands of organizations throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

"We are so fortunate to have generous and dedicated employees who enrich our company and the communities in which we all live and work," said Karen Voci, Oresident of the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation. "The Mini-Grant program is a wonderful way to support our employees as philanthropists and to help them make an impact in their own cities and towns."

In 2015, more than 95 percent of Harvard Pilgrim employees participated in at least one form of service or giving through volunteering, the Mini-Grants program, or Harvard Pilgrim’s annual Employee Fundraising Campaign.