LIVONIA, Mich.– The Michigan-Michigan State football rivalry gave employees of Zeal Credit Union a chance to turn passion for their favorite team into a “penny war” fundraiser for hurricane relief.
Staff were invited to dress down to support their favorite school when they donated pennies and other spare change. On Friday before the game, more than $760 was raised with Michigan fans donating $425.29 and MSU fans donating $335.96.
Zeal Credit Union matched employees spare change donations to send more than $1,500 for Hurricane Relief to the CU Aid Fund, a disaster relief program of the National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF). The Foundation is the charitable arm of the U.S. credit union movement and works as a catalyst to improve people’s financial lives through credit unions.
“Everyone got into the spirit,” said Bryan Feldpausch, marketing coordinator for Zeal Credit Union. “While we’re cheering on our teams, we didn’t want to forget the people who are victims of recent hurricanes. It comes down to ‘people helping people’ and that’s what credit unions are about.”
At right, Zeal Credit Union’s University of Michigan cheering squad included, from left, Christina Schiller, Laura Sposky, Phyllis Ritchie, Denim Trickey and Tiffany Sweet.
Below, cheering on Michigan State University were, from left, Ashley Cloutier, Miranda Madden, Kristen Bright and Sandy Selewski.