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CIBC has, throughout its 154-year history, quickly stepped forward in times of crisis and need.

Rob Assimakopoulos, CMO at CIBC, recently came across pictures in the bank’s archives of banking centre employees providing financial services while wearing masks during the 1918 influenza pandemic. In more modern times, Assimakopoulos points to the financial institution’s CIBC Run for the Cure, Canada’s largest single-day, volunteer-led event in support of breast cancer research.

Now, the bank is looking to make another positive contribution by showing its appreciation to Canadian frontline healthcare workers, with the launch of “CIBC Holiday for Heroes” campaign.

The program will provide 30 million Aventura points to give 200 workers a break when the pandemic is over and it is safe to travel. Canadians can nominate frontline healthcare workers to be celebrated for their efforts on CIBC’s website or by replying to the bank on social media, with the recipients randomly selected. The points, which never expire, can be redeemed for several different parts of the travel experience, such as flights, hotels and rental cars, to make the reward as flexible as possible. CIBC tells strategy that within the first 48 hours of the campaign, there were 10,000 nominations.

“Everyone recognizes the sacrifices frontline healthcare workers have made, particularly at this time. What we wanted to do was go beyond a simple ‘thank you,’ and to give our frontline healthcare workers something tangible,” Assimakopoulos says.