On December 17, 2020, we entered into an Equity Distribution Agreement with Wells Fargo Securities, LLC (the “Equity Distribution Agreement”) for the issuance and sale of up to $60.0 million of our common shares. Under the terms of the Equity Distribution Agreement, sales of our common shares were made by any method deemed to be an “at-the-market offering” as defined in Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933. The Company elected when to issue a placement notice which may, among other sales parameters, specify the number of shares to be sold, the minimum price per share to be accepted, the daily volume of shares that may be sold and the range of dates when shares may be sold. We completed the program and sold 1,658,012 common shares during the first quarter of 2021, which generated aggregate proceeds of $59.1 million, net of commissions and other associated costs. Proceeds were used to reduce outstanding debt on the Company’s Credit Facility during the first quarter of 2021.

During the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, we distributed 114,131 and 128,580 treasury shares upon vesting of stock-based awards. In connection with issuing the shares for vested stock-based awards, we repurchased 29,082 and 33,863 of our common shares for $0.9 million and $1.0 million, respectively, which were surrendered to us pursuant to the terms of a stock-based compensation plan in consideration of the participants' tax burdens that may result from the issuance of common shares under that plan. Such common shares, unless canceled, may be reissued for a variety of purposes such as future acquisitions, non-employee director stock awards or employee stock awards.

In February and May 2021, we paid a quarterly dividend of $0.01 per common share. In addition, on July 28, 2021 we declared a quarterly dividend of $0.01 per common share for shareholders of record on August 9, 2021 and payable on August 24, 2021.

Accumulated other comprehensive loss, net of income taxes, consisted of the following (in thousands):


	June 30, 2021			December 31, 2020
Pension and other postretirement benefit plans - unrecognized prior service costs and net actuarial loss	$	(5,375	)	$	(5,375	)
Interest rate swaps - net fair value loss		(4,763	)		(1,825	)
Total accumulated other comprehensive loss	$	(10,138	)	$	(7,200	)