CUs Help Provide Housing, Blankets, Toys, Meals & Gifts

New Hampshire Federal Credit Union’s LuAnn Chapman (left), Karen Murphy (second from right) and Carolyn Allhiser (right) hand off donations to Santa. The $308.5 million, Concord, N.H.-based NHFCU held its Santa for Seniors Giving Tree donation drive from Nov. 30 through Dec. 11, 2020. The community responded by contributing gift cards and homemade holiday cards, which were placed on Giving Trees in each NHFCU lobby for two weeks. In mid-December, Santa delivered over $1,500 in gift card donations and homemade cards to nine senior facilities in the areas NHFCU services.

A kitchen worker at St. Vincent de Paul’s Soup Kitchen in Salt Lake City, Utah helps prepare meals for those in need while practicing enhanced safety precautions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to help address increasing food insecurity in Utah, the Security Service Charitable Foundation, the charitable arm of the $10 billion, San Antonio, Texas-based Security Service Federal Credit Union, donated $5,000 to the soup kitchen. The funds are being used to provide protective equipment for staff, as well as packaging for to-go meals and shelf-stable food items since the organization has shifted to a to-go meal format during COVID-19.

The $2.56 billion, Indianapolis-based Indiana Members Credit Union collected truckloads of toys and over $730 in donations from members, employees and the community for the 2020 U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. The credit union partnered with local news station CBS4, serving as a presenting sponsor for the program. Each year, the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program collects new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December, and distributes them as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community. All IMCU branch locations served as collection points for toy donations. Pictured from left to right are IMCU employees Bawi Sakong, Kyle Cox, Betty Sanchez, Nicole Rumell, Heather Sparks, David Early and Dylan Billbee.

Kitsap Credit Union Port Townsend Branch Manager Debbi Greenspane (right) presents a check to East Jefferson County Habitat for Humanity Director Jamie Maciejewski. The $1.65 billion, Bremerton, Wash.-based Kitsap donated $10,000 to Washington State’s East Jefferson County Habitat for Humanity to help fund its new development project in Port Townsend, Wash. The organization purchased property in Port Townsend where 16 new homes will be built to house those in need. Homelessness and the housing crisis ranks as one of the highest needs in Jefferson County as many are struggling to pay their rent or mortgages amid today’s economic challenges.

Michael Menas (right), branch manager for the $1 billion, Waltham, Mass.-based RTN Federal Credit Union, and Blankets for Kids volunteers show off handmade blankets. The credit union recently collected and donated nearly 70 blankets to the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless’ A Bed for Every Child program. The blankets for infants and children were knitted by Blankets for Kids volunteers from the Amesbury Senior Community Center in Amesbury, Mass., who have donated dozens of handmade blankets to RTN for the past several years as part of RTN’s participation in the Cooperative Credit Union Association’s annual Blanket Drive for the Coalition and A Bed for Every Child. This year, the volunteers dropped off their handmade blankets to RTN’s Amesbury Branch for the credit union to donate directly to the Coalition.

Like RTN Federal Credit Union, the Hanscom FCU Charitable Foundation – the charitable arm of the $1.6 billion, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.-based Hanscom Federal Credit Union –joined the Cooperative Credit Union Association’s effort to support the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless’ A Bed for Every Child program, donating $20,000. This donation brought the Foundation’s total contributions to A Bed for Every Child to over $35,000 in 2020, and was raised through the Foundation’s biannual cash raffle, which also awarded a cash prize of $10,000 for one lucky member. Pictured from left to right are Hanscom FCU President/CEO David Sprague, Hanscom FCU Chairman Ray Phillips, Hanscom FCU Charitable Foundation Chairman Paul Marotta and CCUA President/CEO Ron McLean.

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