CUs Work to Boost COVID Testing & Help People in Need

Employees with the $187.3 million, Fremont, Mich.-based Gerber Federal Credit Union recently presented a check for $12,726.30 to Michigan’s Newaygo County community as a result of the credit union’s annual United Way Employee Campaign for fiscal year 2020-21. The money raised will help fund 17 Newaygo County programs affecting all age groups, particularly this year’s Imagination Library, which offers books monthly to babies and children up to age five. Pictured from left to right are Marielle Richie, Gerber FCU education coordinator; Martha Gabrielse, United Way campaign chairperson; Lori Little, Gerber FCU vice president – operations; James Rynberg, director, United Way Newaygo County; and John Buckley, Gerber FCU president/CEO.

Connex Credit Union ($749.3 million, New Haven, Conn.) recently supported Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven’s mission to provide safe and affordable homes for low-income working families by donating $1,000 and spending the day helping the non-profit organization build a home on Lamberton Street in New Haven. This is the seventh year in a row Connex has volunteered with Habitat for Humanity on a home construction project. Pictured from left to right are Connex volunteers Frank Mancini, president/CEO; Brian Tomlinson, Monroe branch manager; Carl Casper, EVP and COO; and Rich Sudol, vice president and CFO.

The $5 billion Visions Federal Credit Union in Endwell, N.Y., recently provided UHS Hospitals, based in Binghamton, N.Y., with a $15,000 grant that will allow the hospitals to expand their COVID-19 testing capacity. The UHS Laboratory has completed over 34,000 in-house tests in the past eight months, and another 21,000 tests have recently been collected and sent to external reference labs. In the beginning, these tests took hours to days to get results. The recent development of a rapid testing instrument has increased turnaround time on these tests, often within an hour. These new instruments allow more people to be tested at a faster rate, helping to keep the community spread low. Overall, COVID-19 testing is an expense that UHS did not originally budget for 2020. Pictured from left to right during a tour of the UHS COVID-19 Command Center are Cory Jacobs with the UHS Foundation, Dan Spence with Visions, Rick Boland with the UHS Medical Command Center, Anne DePugh with UHS Population Health, Tim Strong with Visions and Dr. Ann Teng with the UHS Medical Command Center.

Last week, members of Ardent Credit Union ($783.5 million, Philadelphia) donated nearly $4,000 to several local organizations to help combat food insecurity. Throughout the month of October, staff at each branch of the credit union participated in a Halloween-themed fundraiser by asking members to purchase a “Quack-o-Lantern,” or Halloween-themed rubber duck (pictured) for $5. Branch donations were sent to Martha’s Choice Marketplace, Phoenixville Area Community Services Inc., The Sunday Breakfast Rescue Mission and the Wayne Food Pantry just in time to help families through the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. In addition, the credit union recently contributed to Philabundance, a Philadelphia hunger relief organization, as part of its ongoing mission to fight hunger.

American Airlines Federal Credit Union ($8.6 billion, Fort Worth, Texas) presented Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals with a $56,000 donation as a result of the 24th Annual Credit Union Golf Tournament, which took place Sept. 4 at Cowboys Golf Club in Grapevine, Texas. The total donation will be split between the Cook Children’s Medical Center Foundation and Children’s Medical Center Foundation. As golf is an outdoor activity where social distancing is possible, the event went on as planned with the addition of a number of changes to ensure further safety, including a reduced pool of volunteers, the elimination of any additional games, a virtual silent auction and credit card-only purchases for Mulligans, buy-ups and other fundraising efforts. Cowboys Golf Club also implemented a number of heightened safety procedures, and masks were required inside the clubhouse except when attendees were eating or drinking. Pictured from left to right are tournament coordinator Tish Pruitt with American Airlines FCU; Kendall Rowden, development officer, corporate partnerships for the Children’s Medical Center Foundation; Karol Johnson, CMN Hospitals specialist; and Gail Enda, president/CEO for American Airlines FCU.

Dan Stoltz (pictured at right with Colonel Dan Furry of The Salvation Army Northern Division), SPIRE Credit Union president/CEO and this year’s Salvation Army Red Kettle community chair, announced SPIRE ($1.48 billion, Falcon Heights, Minn.) will donate $100,000 to The Salvation Army to help kick off its “Rescue Christmas” campaign. The campaign started early out of concern that donations during the holiday season will suffer because of the pandemic. Kettle collections are anticipated to decline as much as 50% due to fewer kettle locations and ringers, reduced hours and less cash carried by consumers. Donations can be made in four ways:

• Online
• By asking Amazon Alexa, “Alexa, donate to The Salvation Army,” then specifying the amount
• By texting “KETTLES” to 91999
• By making a contactless donation with Apple Pay, Google Pay or QR code scan at any red kettle location beginning in November

SPIRE is currently matching all online gifts and other digital donations to The Salvation Army, up to $100,000.

Please send your Community news items to Natasha Chilingerian at nchilingerian@cutimes.com.