Embracing the credit union movement's mission of "people helping people," Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU) and the GLCU Foundation for Financial Empowerment expanded on the nationwide CU Kind Day - a day for credit unions to give back to their local communities - by dedicating the entire week of October 14th as a "Week of Volunteering."

GLCU encouraged employees to volunteer all week in local communities, and 146 employees volunteered 500 hours through participation in 20 events. This outreach effort dovetails with the mission of the GLCU Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the credit union.

Each year, GLCU sets a community outreach goal for empowering local communities and organizations through giveback. In 2023, GLCU employees served 3,917 hours. To date in 2024, GLCU already has 3,856 hours tallied and is on track to far surpass last year’s efforts.

“We are thrilled that so many employees helped out in our efforts to empower local communities,” said Matthew Rizzie, GLCU Foundation for Financial Empowerment Executive Director. “They did such great mission-based work last week in the community – from making Calm Down Kits with the United Way of Lake County for children entering A Safe Place to packaging food and preparing diaper bundles to distribute to local families in need, their support of our mission speaks to the personal value and community impact each of our team members at GLCU brings with them to do their work.”

Throughout the week, GLCU employees directly served 15 non-profit organizations, including:

American Cancer Society

America Red Cross

Bernie's Book Bank

Cancer Support Center of Homewood

Common Pantry

COOL Ministries Food Bank

Family Health Partnership Clinic

Feed My Starving Children

GiveNKind

Habitat for Humanity Lake County

Keeping Families Covered

Loretto Hospital Foundaton

Northern IL Food Bank

The Bridge Teen Center

United Way Lake County