REPORT OF COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
It is with great pride that I report on the community involvement of your Board of Directors and employees over the past year. This report is given as a reminder to all of why the credit union continues to be successful – we haven’ forgotten the reason why our credit union was started in the first place and what makes us unique.
As our communities flourish, we continue to be relied upon for donations and sponsorships. We do give careful consideration to every request before making our decision. A few of our main considerations are to focus more on events and organizations that involve as many of our owners as possible as opposed to benefiting a select few. We also try to promote events that will bring people to our area, which in turn benefits our local businesses. This year we were major sponsors for the Red Clay Blue Grass Festival, The Irish Folk Festival, The Stars of Pop Concert and the Parade Sponsor of the Prince County Exhibition. We also contributed to the St. Louis Bluegrass Festival, Alberton/Northport Aquatic Days, Irish Moss Festival and the West Prince Music Festival.
We continue to help our local organizations such as minor hockey programs, figure skating, minor ball, volleyball, golf, curling, & winter carnivals. We also donate to the following: Tignish Medical Center, United Way, Cancer Society, Crohns & Colitis, Diabetes, Kidney Foundation, Heart & Stroke, Alzheimer Society, Arthritis Society, Autism, Lions Calvacade, CNIB, Special Olympics, Canadian Mental Health, Adopt an Athlete, Jr. Achievers and Big Brothers-Big Sisters.
While we focus mainly on larger groups and organizations, there are always situations when individuals are supported because it is an educational or extraordinary event. We are in our 2nd year of a 3-year partnership with Central Credit Union and the Tyne Valley Branch of the Evangeline Credit Union to fund the amateur Sport Fund. This fund was designed by the West Prince Sports Council to provide funding to athletes who compete at a National Level.
The Credit Union also continues as a major sponsor for the Community Bulletin. Another sponsorship is the Credit Union Coach of the Month Award in partnership with the Coaches Association of P.E.I. This award acknowledges the contributions and dedication of coaches at the grass-root level. Local coaches can be nominated for this award by anyone including team members or parents. More information on this award can be found on our website.
There are also situations where our credit union system decides to become a sponsor when it is beneficial to all areas of PEI, the 2 major sponsorships this year being the Annual Golf for Wishes Tournament held in Mill River, which raised over $20,000.00 and The Relay for Life. P.E.I. Credit Union’s are in their 2nd year as Provincial Event Sponsor for the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life. Credit Unions from across PEI volunteered to work bank nights in their local areas to help count money and do up the deposits. Our staff attended the Westisle bank nights along with staff from Central Credit Union in O’Leary. We also participated in the relay for life for the 3rd year in a row. We are proud to announce that we were, again, the highest corporate fundraiser with a total of just over $5000.00. At a recent meeting with the Relay for Life Committee it was noted that P.E.I.’s bank nights are the envy of the other provinces and they are now working to have their credit unions to agree to provide this same service.
Our staff continues with their own fundraising efforts and I’ll explain briefly the 3 main sources of our fundraising and also where the proceeds were given this past year. The first fundraiser is one that staff have been doing for as long as anyone can remember and that is to simply donate $1.00 each week to participate in Casual day Friday. Our biggest donation this year was given at Xmas in conjunction with Kids West. We were able to provide Xmas Dinner with all the trimmings and gifts for the entire family for 3 families from our area. The staff are responsible for not only providing the money but also doing the shopping and wrapping the gifts. This has become a very special part of our Xmas and we hope to be able to continue this tradition for many more years to come.
Our second fundraiser is our IWK Fun Day in the Park. This fundraiser is a community effort. It was held on Sunday, May 25th. Our staff raised money by selling 50-50 tickets and also helped at the Fun Day by selling tickets, barbequing and working in the canteen. This year our community raised $ 5140.00 for the IWK.
Our 3rd fundraiser and certainly our largest is our weekly 50-50 draw. This successful fundraiser continues to grow thanks to the great participation of our members from all parts of our service area. In keeping with the credit union philosophy again, we give this money back to our communities in areas that benefit a large number of people. In the past year, we were able to again donate $5,000. to our 3 Fire Departments – Alberton, Tignish and Miminegash; $5,000 to our 2 local rinks – Tignish & Alberton; $5,000 to RCLI, $,3000 to Westisle’s Breakfast Program, $2500 to the West Prince Caring We also donated money to Relay for Life, Drive Away Hunger, Alberton Manor for Xmas Decorations, IWK and Kids West. To all those who take part in this fundraiser, we would like to say a big thank you.
We continued to show our support for community efforts by taking part in specially designated days during winter carnivals. We once again entered a float in both the Irish Moss Festival Parade and the Prince County Exhibition Parade. Staff members graciously volunteered their “accounting services” to various charity events such as the Co-op Health Centre Walkathon, St. Simon and St. Jude Parish Picnic, Irish Moss Festival and local Benefits.
We continue to offer the school credit union program. The schools involved are the Tignish, Alberton and St. Louis Elementary and the French School. We are also a major sponsor for the DARE program held at the Elementary Schools, which is a drug awareness program offered to grade 6 students and is put on by the RCMP. Our annual Easter-Beef draw for local kindergartens raised $2674.00 this year. Since beginning this fund-raiser in 1989, $79,399.00 has been raised.
We presented 4 x $1000 bursaries at Westisle again this year. Congratulations to the recipients – Sam Arsenault, Travis Gaudette, Stephen Keefe and Justin McRae. Founders' awards were presented to graduating students from Tignish, St. Louis, Alberton Elementary and the French schools and M.E. Callaghan Jr. High in addition to prize money given for other grades.
Our Board and Management held their annual staff breakfast and our past president, Jean Cahill, graciously offered to host it at her cottage in Kildare. It was held on a beautiful June morning and enjoyed by all.
As you can see, volunteering continues to play a big role in our jobs at the credit union and it’s something that the credit union not only promotes but also allows the time and resources when possible. Our staff takes pride in playing a vital role in our communities and are willing to help out when the need arises. Our hope in presenting this report tonight is to make you aware of what we do over and above what is expected of us.
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