Credit Unions Adopt Families for the Holidays

Employees of the $977 million, Austin-based Greater Texas Credit Union participate in a gift wrapping party for local charity Any Baby Can for placement under the Greater Texas Christmas tree. The credit union partnered with the organization, which assists babies and families in need, to “adopt” eight families (a total of 32 people), purchasing toys, games, clothes and gift cards to ensure each family member had a gift to unwrap on Christmas Day. Those helped in the past by Any Baby Can include Greater Texas contact center employee Jacqueline Hammett, who received baby furniture, diapers, clothing and continued services from the charity almost 30 years ago as her newborn daughter, Mystique, spent the Christmas holidays in the neonatal unit of a children’s hospital while facing serious health challenges; Mystique is now 29 years old.

Members of Serve Credit Union’s adopted family pose for a photo with Santa during the $96 million, Des Moines, Iowa-based Serve’s Fourth Annual Santa Claus at SCU family fundraiser on Dec. 16. Every year, Serve selects a family in need during the holiday season. This year, the credit union selected Paul Storbeck, a longtime member of the Des Moines Fire Department and Serve, and whose family has a long history of giving back as their lives have been so deeply impacted by cancer across the generations. Santa arrived at Serve’s Urbandale, Iowa branch to give the family the gifts that were collected the previous two months and present financial donations. All monetary donations went to the Princess Camryn Fund, which directly supports Children’s Cancer Connection and Blank Children’s Hospital – Child Life Specialists. The fund is named after Paul’s daughter Camryn, who lost her battle with Neuroblastoma cancer in 2014. Serve also recruited a fire truck to be onsite to show support for the family.

Employees from the $3.4 billion, Eugene, Ore.-based Oregon Community Credit Union’s West 11th branch in Eugene prepare to deliver gifts to a local family. This holiday season, OCCU provided funds for branches, teams and departments to “adopt” 21 area families for the holiday season. This annual opportunity allows OCCU teams to work with local housing and community non-profits to provide holiday gifts and food to families in need. Teams received family wish lists and coordinated among themselves to purchase and deliver the gifts. A total of 87 individuals received gifts from OCCU staff this holiday season.

In addition, OCCU staff who participated in the credit union’s employee giving program selected Arc of Lane County, Community Outreach through Radical Empowerment, Children’s Miracle Network via Credit Unions for Kids and Volunteers in Medicine to receive $5,000 each. The OCCU Foundation, OCCU’s philanthropic arm, sponsors the program, which allows OCCU team members to donate automatically via a payroll deduction each pay cycle. Approximately one-third of OCCU’s nearly 600 team members participate in payroll giving. OCCU teams also provided toys, resources and supplies to the Springfield, Ore.-based Ronald McDonald House Charities’ Heartfelt House and Eugene’s PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center’s pediatric wing. In total, 39 teams and departments gave an approximate total of more than $8,000 and clocked over 150 corporate-sponsored volunteer hours this holiday season – the highest level of departmental participation to date.

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