FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif.–Eagle Community Credit Union has again participated in the CO-OP Financial Services-Yoobi 2018 National Back-to-School Backpack Drive to give back to its community
This is the second year CO-OP has offered the Back-to-School drive. For every $1,500 a credit union invests in the program, the cooperative receives 50 Yoobi backpacks and school supplies for students in need.
Eagle Community CU began its participation in July and added a unique element to the program—during August, it held a vote among its 20,000 members to determine what school or organization would receive the backpacks.
“On Aug. 1 we started by asking our members to nominate a worthy institution, and at mid-month we conducted a vote on the recipient,” said Eagle Community CU Vice President of Marketing Erica W. Beach.
A total of 10 organizations were submitted to members for voting. By Sept. 1 there was an overwhelming winner: Connecting Hands of Placentia, which received more than 2,500 votes, all through online and social media sharing.
Connecting Hands was nominated by a member of the credit union who works for Goodwill and refers families to them. The non-profit organization helps financially distressed families with life necessities and counseling, serving about 1,500 families throughout Orange County, the credit union said.
The credit union promoted the August vote through emails to members, branch flyers, and social media channels—the latter provided an unexpected benefit to the campaign.
“We had a great deal of social media engagement during the Back-to-School drive,” said Beach. “We added to our following; we had a great deal of positive comments to our posts and many were forwarded by our members.”
The campaign came to a conclusion with two very gratifying team-building exercises. First, credit union employees held a pizza party at their office to stuff the school supplies into the backpacks. Then five employees—including President/CEO Scott Rains—delivered the backpacks to the children at Connecting Hands. The credit union also donated a $250 gift card so more supplies could be ordered.
“We had a great time stuffing the backpacks and delivering them to Connecting Hands,” said Beach. “We met some of the kids and families who got to pick out their new backpack for school, and they were very cute and gracious.
“The CO-OP program is so well organized and was very simple for us to give back in this way,” Beach continued. “The campaign worked for us in several important respects—it added to our own ‘Helping Hands/Give Back Initiative,’ built team comradery and helped us to engage with members.”
Above right, surrounding the students, at right, from left: Eagle Community CU employees Albert Herrera, Jessica Mares, Scott Rains, Tammy Perez and Karla Davis, and Connecting Hands Founder Roxanne Day.