Shopping Local, Shredding Documents & Cooking Healthy: Community News

After a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic, the General Casimir Pulaski Parade returned to Fifth Avenue in New York, N.Y., on Oct. 3. Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union ($2.5 billion, Brooklyn, N.Y.) has traditionally been the main sponsor of the parade, and this year, Anita Wlodarczyk (center, in white), a three-time Olympic champion in the hammer throw, marched alongside 100-plus PSFCU representatives. A few days earlier, she became a PSFCU member.

The $3.2 billion, Chatsworth, Calif.-based Premier America Credit Union's Premier America Foundation has partnered with The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme, donating $100,000 to support its outreach in underserved communities. The investment is part of a long-term commitment to help prepare the next generation through learning, career readiness training and other educational programs. Pictured from left to right are Andrew Peake, director of advancement for the Boys & Girls Club chapter; Premier America President/CEO Rudy Pereira; Erin Antrim, president/CEO for the Boys & Girls Club chapter; Foundation Board Chair and Premier America Board Vice Chair Gary Holmen; Premier America Board Chair William Cole; Foundation and Premier America Board Member Eva Gomez, Foundation Board Member Henry Wolfinger and Foundation Executive Director Diana Cervantes.

Volunteers from Redwood Credit Union ($6.9 billion, Santa Rosa, Calif.) pose for a photo at the Shred-a-Thon in California's Sonoma County. This summer, more than 3,150 residents in the state's Marin, Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties took action to protect themselves from fraud and identity theft by bringing old financial records and other paperwork to RCU's free Shred-a-Thons. Attendees safely disposed of and recycled 170,750 pounds of documents, as well as 28,522 pounds of e-waste, including old TVs, printers, monitors and computers. They also donated more than $9,450 to support SchoolsRule Marin, Puertas Abiertas Community Resource Center in Napa County, and Redwood Empire Food Bank in Sonoma and Mendocino counties.

Center Parc Credit Union, a division of APCU ($2.5 billion, Atlanta), and the Savannah Urban Garden Alliance (SUGA) partnered with six Savannah elementary schools to create a recipe cookbook documenting the students' first vegetable garden. About 500 students will participate in a recipe writing contest and 15 will be selected to have their recipes published along with their artwork. With about 16% of children in Georgia's Chatham County being food insecure, according to the Coastal Georgia Indicators Coalition, the project also aims to offer healthy habits to local youth. Pictured from left to right are elementary school teacher Megan Breese, Center Parc Community Development Liason Donna Williams, SUGA School Garden Liaison Jennifer Drey, SUGA School Garden Manager Nicole Funk, school nutrition coordinator Dorothy Dupree and elementary school principal Dr. Latila Slay.

From left to right, Becky Smith, EVP, chief strategy and marketing officer for SECU ($4.6 billion, Linthicum, Md.); MD|DC Credit Union Association President/CEO John Bratsakis; Del. Nicole Williams with the Maryland General Assembly; Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot and Mayor Pro Tem Jodie Kulpa-Eddy of Berwyn Heights, Md., present at the Maryland Comptroller's Office "Shop Maryland and Save for the Holidays" initiative kickoff event Oct. 21 at SECU's Berwyn Heights branch. Fourteen credit unions are participating in the initiative by offering increased reward points on credit cards and other incentives to encourage members to patronize local businesses that are still recovering from the pandemic.

Adam Keer (left), chief experience officer for the $1 billion, La Crosse, Wis.-based Marine Credit Union, and Quinn Devlin, executive director for the MCU Foundation, present a $150,000 check at the sixth annual MCU Foundation Golf Outing on Aug. 4 at Cedar Creek Country Club in Onalaska, Wis. Friends and partners of MCU donated the funds to support financial literacy and charitable causes in the credit union's communities, and more than 140 golfers participated on the course.

Please send your Community news items to Natasha Chilingerian at [email protected].

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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.