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For most people, September 8th is just an average day. C&N, however, sees it a little bit differently. When we found out that September 8th is National Ampersand Day, we knew that we wanted to make it something special. So, what is Ampersand Day & how do we celebrate it?

History & Trivia

The history of National Ampersand Day doesn’t go back very far. It was founded by Chaz DeSimone in 2015 to celebrate that fun, little character that joins things together. Things you can do to celebrate include substituting ampersands for the word “and” in all your communications & to also learn some ampersand trivia. For instance, the ampersand used to be the last letter in the alphabet. It also gets its shape from combining an ‘e’ & a ‘t’ together from the Latin word ‘et’, meaning ‘and.

Kindness & Togetherness

At C&N, we wanted to elevate the holiday because the ampersand is so important to our brand & our culture. When you think of phrases where you would use an ampersand – such as ‘you & me,’ ‘husband & wife,’ ‘coat & tie,’ ‘fun & games’ – you’re joining things together and building a sense of inclusiveness. With our mission at C&N being “Building value through lifelong relationships,” the ampersand is the perfect symbol to represent the relationships we build.

Like any holiday, we wanted Ampersand Day to truly stand for something. When we thought about how the ampersand is a symbol that represents coming together, we decided that Ampersand Day should be about doing something nice for one another. We want this day to stand for random acts of kindness so that our community can join together, much like the ampersand joins people & ideas.

Create & Celebrate

C&N has some big things planned to celebrate Ampersand Day, & we’re really excited to celebrate. We’re taking a two-pronged approach – we are going to celebrate it internally with our teammates, & we have some other things planned for the community as well.

For our teammates at C&N, we wanted to do something that would be really fun to get them excited about Ampersand Day. It will be a Jeans Day, so our we’ll get to celebrate a little more comfortably. We’re also holding an “Amper Art” contest, where any of our employees or groups of employees can submit their artistic interpretation of an ampersand however they choose. They can draw an ampersand, sculpt one, mow a giant ampersand into their yard & take a photo, even bake an ampersand cake. Any creative way they can think of, we’ll accept it, so we’re really looking forward to seeing what creativity we can spark from our team.

We’re very excited for this holiday, so we are hoping this momentum will carry over into our communities as well. At every location we are having “green treats”, so any snack that is colored green, we’ll have ampersand cookies, sunglasses, totes, balloons & yard signs, so our branch lobbies will all be decked out in ampersands. But most importantly, getting into the heart of what we really want to make Ampersand Day about, we’re giving each employee an Ampersand Day “Pay it Forward” card. Each employee is empowered to do something nice for someone, & once they do that, they can pass their card along to that person. The cards have a place to write the nice thing that they did, which we hope will inspire the people that the card reaches, & a hashtag so they can share their story on social media. Our hope is that these cards keep getting passed on & we’ll get to hear some really amazing stories from all over!

Celebrating the ampersand in a way that encourages kindness & togetherness is at the heart of what drives C&N every day. We’re looking forward to seeing what this day becomes this year & for many years to come. We’ll see you all on September 8th!