Alaska USA FCU
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union President/CEO Geoff Lundfelt (right) appears as a special guest on "Dining with Darci," a Special Olympics Alaska cooking show. The $9.7 billion, Anchorage-based Alaska USA recently donated $20,000 to Special Olympics Alaska, whose mission is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. The donation will support Special Olympics Alaska's creative efforts in providing sports training and competition for more than 2,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities; Special Olympics Alaska's biggest community fundraiser, the Alaska Law Enforcement Torch Run; and a few grassroots programs like "Dining with Darci."
Gerber FCU Second grade students from Fremont Christian School District in Fremont, Mich., show off their new books. John Buckley, president/CEO of the $194.6 million, Fremont-based Gerber Federal Credit Union, recently read the book "Give It!" by Cinders McLeod in a video sent to second grade teachers across the county. The book introduces simple money concepts, and features an enthusiastic young bunny who discovers how good it feels to use his allowance to help others. Gerber recorded the video in lieu of its usual in-person events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to distributing the video, Gerber provided every student, their teacher and their school library with a copy of the book with assistance from the Michigan Credit Union Foundation. A total of 600 books were donated to the following school districts: Big Jackson, Fremont, Fremont Christian, Grant, Grant Christian, Hesperia, Holton, Newaygo and White Cloud.
LorMet Community FCU Recommended For You
From right to left, LorMet Community Federal Credit Union Vice President Shavena Brown and LorMet Director of Marketing Andrew Krieger present Julie Chase-Morefield, president of the Lorain, Ohio-based Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, with $26,981 raised through the credit union's Harvest for Hunger member match campaign on April 13. For the second time in seven months, members of the $218.4 million, Amherst, Ohio-based credit union responded to the pandemic with overwhelming support for their neighbors in need. LorMet has now reached the milestone of over $100,000 raised for Second Harvest, providing more than an estimated 500,000 meals to local families since 2016. Due to the pandemic, Second Harvest is currently serving four times the meals they did one year ago, and one out of three Lorain County citizens have needed to visit a food bank, soup kitchen, or hunger center at least once over the past year. Over 40% of those served by local hunger centers are children.
Katya Askar Katya Askar, manager of corporate giving and events at The Midnight Mission (TMM), happily holds an $11,000 check donated by the $1.16 billion, Glendale, Calif.-based Los Angeles Federal Credit Union. LAFCU raised the funds in February through online contributions and in-person branch donations. For every dollar raised, LAFCU matched up to $5,000 for TMM through its charity, the Los Angeles Charitable Association. One hundred percent of donations will support TMM's fight against poverty, homelessness and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Located in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, TMM serves people experiencing homelessness and near-homelessness, providing meal services, housing, rehabilitation and counseling services. Every $2 donated is used to provide one meal.
Texas Trust CU Employees from the $1.56 billion, Arlington, Texas-based Texas Trust Credit Union wear red to celebrate the results of their recent American Heart Association fundraiser. Texas Trust recently raised $2,000 for the association through an internal raffle, while employees participated in a number of heart-healthy activities to support the Go Red campaign. The credit union's Go Red campaign helps educate employees about cardiovascular disease and steps they can take to lower their risk and improve their health. Although the campaign is oriented toward raising awareness for women's heart health issues, Texas Trust used it to educate all employees about the benefits of a heart-healthy lifestyle.
Robins Financial CU Christina O'Brien (second from right) and Dee Dee Côté (left) with Robins Financial Credit Union present a check to representatives from the United Way of Central Georgia located in Macon, Ga. The $3.34 billion, Warner Robins, Ga.-based Robins Financial recently contributed over $96,000 to the organization. The contribution was a combination of the credit union's annual employee campaign along with sponsorships, with a total of 64% of employees pledging over $46,000 from their employee campaign.
Please send your Community news items to Natasha Chilingerian at [email protected].
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
