Charity that began at home.

Byline: Michael L. Diamond

Jun. 4--OceanFirst Foundation last year gave $25,000 to Cedar Creek Elementary School in Lacey to help the school replenish its library. But the true payoff came last Tuesday, when several students triumphantly accepted awards for the extra reading they had done.

First-grader Kylie Weissenburger was one of them. She read 31 library books since January, including as many as three each night. After the ceremony, she considered why she kept at it.

"There's a lot of words that I learned to read," Weissenburger, 7, said. "And there's a lot of pictures I like because I sketch and draw a lot, and when I grow up I want to be an artist."

OceanFirst Foundation is taking a bow as well. The organization, created through an unusual arrangement in OceanFirst Financial Corp.'s initial public stock offering 10 years ago, has emerged as one of the region's leading philanthropic agencies.

It has contributed $16 million to more than 3,000 organizations since 1996. And it has provided a road map for a handful of banks nationwide that have created their own foundations. Bank executives say it also has allowed OceanFirst to stay in the forefront of…