{"id":356500,"date":"2026-09-25T07:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356500\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T07:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T07:30:23","slug":"citizens-bank-celebrates-opening-of-downtown-flushing-branch-with-ribbon-cutting-and-mid-autumn-festival-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/356500\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens Bank celebrates opening of Downtown Flushing branch with ribbon-cutting and Mid-Autumn Festival \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Council\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Council Member Sandra Ung joins Citizens representatives at the opening of the new Downtown Flushing branch. <\/p>\n

Photo via Citizens Bank<\/p>\n

Citizens Bank celebrated the grand opening of its Downtown Flushing<\/a> branch Wednesday, Sept. 23, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and \u201cMid-Autumn Festival\u201d for members of the local community.<\/p>\n

Citizens also presented local non-profit Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE<\/a>) Youth with a $20,000 grant during the ribbon-cutting ceremony as part of an initiative to provide youth across Queens with access to financial empowerment and literacy sessions led by Citizens bankers.<\/p>\n

The celebration was followed by a ceremonial lion dance hosted by Awaken Lion, which opened the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrating the Harvest Moon holiday. The event featured Asian American-inspired cuisine, live music from multidisciplinary group Kung Flow and traditional sugar art and mooncakes provided by Flushing\u2019s Mr. Tu Bakery.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe event featured a Mid-Autumn Festival with Asian American food. Photo via Citizens<\/p>\n

The new Downtown Flushing branch, meanwhile, features an expanded local team, multilingual services and support for small businesses.<\/p>\n

Yajaira Hafley, a regional market executive at Citizens covering the Tri-State Area, said the new location showcased the bank\u2019s attempts to connect with local communities, especially through the AAFE Youth grant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opening of our new Flushing branch reflects our commitment to connecting with our customers and communities through the organizations and neighborhoods that make New York City so special,\u201d Hafley said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re proud to support AAFE\u2019s work and help create stronger financial futures here in Flushing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas Yu, executive director of AAFE who accepted the grant on behalf of AAFE Youth, said the organization\u2019s after-school programs had helped participants to become the first in their families to attend college. The $20,000 grant, he added, would allow the nonprofit\u2019s youth programming to continue to thrive.<\/p>\n

\"CitizensCitizens presented AAFE Youth with a $20,000 grant at the event. Photo via Citizens<\/p>\n

\u201cHundreds of high school students in our after-school programs are able to become the first members of their families to attend college,\u201d Yu said in a statement. \u201cWe are grateful to Citizens for providing meaningful financial support to ensure that our vital youth initiatives continue to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

AAFE Youth currently provides college access and pre-professional support to over 600 high school students across Queens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Council Member Sandra Ung joins Citizens representatives at the opening of the new Downtown Flushing branch. Photo via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[24262,132818,132819,2945,63521,63334,82159,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-356500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-aafe","tag-aafe-youth","tag-asian-americans-for-equality-co-executive-directors-jennifer-sun-and-thomas-yu","tag-citizens-bank","tag-downtown-flushing","tag-lion-dance","tag-new-business","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}