“Recovering banker.” That’s how Caroline Willard, CEO of Cornerstone League, describes herself. Before discovering the cooperative difference, she worked at a thrift where, as she recalls, the chief lending officer drove a Lamborghini.
Fast forward to her time at CO-OP (now Velera), and now the Cornerstone League, she has been passionately involved in the Credit Unions for Kids program, and has helped to raise millions for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Now she’s taking the next step in these efforts – Caroline is the new chairman of the CU4Kids program, as John Bratsakis, CEO at the Maryland and DC Credit Union Association, passes the baton.
Sitting across from her in The Credit Union Connection studio, Bratsakis nods knowingly. Between the two of them, there is more than half a century of service to the movement and a clear passion for how collaboration, philanthropy and purpose intertwine. Their conversation with our founder, Sarah Snell Cooke, is not just about a changing of the guard. It is about how that guard continues to evolve and inspire to carry the mission forward.
What unfolds in this dialogue is a reminder of why the movement’s impact reaches far beyond the balance sheet. John recalls attending the Hank and Moose golf outing long before it became the Northwest Classic and realizing he was witnessing something bigger than a fundraiser. It was a gathering of people united by a shared purpose, helping children. That same energy still fuels Credit Unions for Kids today, from coast to coast.
Caroline brings her own story full circle. From her first encounter with those little balloons on the wall to leading national fundraising efforts, she has seen the difference that alignment and community can make. Her creation of Bourbon, Barbecue and Bands in Texas is not just an event, it is a statement that credit unions everywhere can shape this cause in ways that fit their local culture and spirit.
The conversation also reveals a strategic undercurrent beneath all the heart. Under John’s leadership, the board introduced structure and long-term planning, turning inspiration into execution. Caroline, now stepping into the chair role, is amplifying that work through digital and transactional giving, linking financial health to physical well-being in tangible ways.
But what lingers most after watching is not the logistics or dollar amounts, it is the sense of legacy. Both leaders speak about those who came before them, like Tom Sargent, Stan Holland, and Tony Boutelle, and the next generation who must now carry the baton going forward. “We have to help them see the vision now,” Caroline says, her tone mixing urgency and optimism.
In an age where corporate giving often feels performative, this exchange is a testament to something more authentic: people helping people, and meaning it.
NOTE: The following transcript is automated with AI. No, it didn’t replace someone’s job.
Sarah Cooke
Welcome everybody. My name is Sarah Snell Cooke. I’m your host here at the carny connection, and I’m having a two wonderful guests today. I have Caroline Willard of Cornerstone League. Welcome.
Caroline Willard
Hi, Sarah
Sarah Cooke
And John Brett says from the Maryland, DC Credit Union Association, welcome.
John Bratsakis
Hi, Sarah. How are you? Great to see you. Good.
Sarah Cooke
Good to see you all as well. So we’re here and to talk about the the changing of the guard, the passing of the baton, if you will. And so I would like you all to talk a little bit about more of yourselves and background on your role in the credit unions for kids. Okay,
John Bratsakis
so I’ve been in credits for 37 years now, coming right out of college, unexpectedly and but kind of, my involvement with CMN started several years ago, obviously, when I was at the credit union, I remember going to the northwest classic, which was called the Hank and moose back then, golf outing, and being invited to that. And it was just this kind of, this powerful collection of people from all over the country with this message of, you know, kind of the mission of people helping people, and how credits are doing that with CMN. And then I was fortunate to come to this role. And with the cherry blossom race, you saw that on a bigger scale, and you also saw it right here in DC, where, you know, folks get to see that all the time. So being in credit unions, my, you know, for so long, you get to see and you get to feel the difference. It’s just not words, right, whether it’s our business partners like Valera, you know, even previous knowing Caroline and all the work she did over a co op, and what PSU did with their involvement, especially with the race here and true stage, and just all of the credit union work that’s done it. It just is kind of, I guess, was ingrained in me early on in my career, that that’s one of those themes that you can use to show here’s the credit union difference, and it’s consistent throughout the country. So we can collectively say, hey, credits have raised over two $20 million to help children throughout this country by collaborating.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, I remember when this program started. It’s crazy. It’s growth so much. How about you, Caroline?
Caroline Willard
Well, I haven’t been in credit unions for 37 years because I’m a recovering banker. I was a banker in the 90s. And, yeah, I mean, I’m sorry, Maya culpa, but I was and to contrast, you know, the Chief Lending Officer at the Thrift, the savings alone I worked at, drove a Lamborghini because they were making money off of the wrong kinds of mortgage loans. Won’t go into it. Really, the only reason they did anything in their community is because CRA compelled them to. And then I move over to a credit union, and I’m like, they’re putting these little balloons on the wall. And I didn’t really get it at first, but of course, they were raising money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. And then over time, because I was at that credit union for five years and then moved on to Co Op, but over time, I understood, okay, this is what we’ve chosen. This charity is what speaks to us. This is what we if we lock arms together as a movement can sustain, grow, build, and it’s pretty great to see what’s happened in the intervening decades. And you know, John’s right. I was at Co Op. I got to be there when they created the miracle match program and I, they sent me to the Hank and moose tournament, like John, I got to go, and I was so star struck by all the people I saw there. And I thought this, this really amplifies our movement. This gives us a reason to get out of bed in the morning. For me, it’s one of the most gratifying things that I’ve done in my career is be associated with this organization. So, you know, when, when I got to Texas, I thought, wait a minute, there’s no big CMN event here. What’s the story? You know? And it just hadn’t happened. I mean, there were some substantial, smaller events going on, but we created bourbon barbecue and bands just last year because we thought we need to be doing our part in the middle of the country. And you know, it fits us. It doesn’t. It might not work as well. John, I don’t think in Washington, DC, Bourbon part might.
John Bratsakis
Yeah, the barbecue. Would too. Yeah, the cowboy boots maybe not as much. That in the cowboy hats might not work.
Caroline Willard
Yeah, yeah. It took me a while before I was willing to wear one. I felt like a poser, but I think we have to shape the program. And I hate to call it a program, because it’s so much bigger than that, but I you know our love for this, this cause, we’ve got to shape it according to what’s relevant locally, and that’s what I’ve been so proud to be a part of for all these years.
Sarah Cooke
And so we are passing the baton, John, you want to talk about like, what that means for you, and maybe some of your proudest moments.
John Bratsakis
Sure I what to when Sarah bang have to make sure I give a shout out to Sarah bang, because Sarah bang had been the chair for so long and done so much incredible work up in the Northwest. And you know, she led the group, and when she was retiring, she asked if I would be interested in being the chair. And it’s a little daunting, because there’s so many incredible people involved on the board. And I remember talking to Samantha Paxson, who, at the time was with Co Op, and, you know, asked if she would be willing to work with me on a strategic planning event to talk about, how do we take some of these great ideas but make them actionable, and the have the board, you know, maybe get some more structure, but then also how we’re doing outreach and some of that. And Sam was invaluable as we worked together. It was just so much. It was actually a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time. So we have this idea of creating the board and having structure to the board, and having, you know, some rotations, like you see at credit unions, or you see at leagues, you know, where there’s a vice chair and a chair, and you just kind of, and you rotate, not that you have to leave the board at all. I mean, I won’t be leaving the board, but let some other new ideas. And we had all of these great ideas, and you know, with that, and the board was very supportive and being more engaged, and not just being a place to come and talk about best practices and what’s working, but also to kind of try to get, I don’t know, maybe just, you know, try to get some more fuel onto the fire, to stir that up, and as Caroline said, to do more in the Midwest and to move out east. And then also find those other options so we can, you know, amplify and celebrate. I think, as Caroline talks often about amplifying, you know, the great work that credit unions do, and I also think get credit for it. I think that was the other thing with CMN, is to make sure that this incredible work that credit unions do that’s much different than Walmart and Costco. Who are, you know, number one and two lifetime, and we’re number three. But that, you know, credit unions that that gets acknowledged nationally, because I think it’s important that, you know, the public sees the incredible work that credit unions do.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, for sure. And Caroline, you’ll be picking up this yoke.
Caroline Willard
I know, and it’s a cliche to say that John’s a hard act to follow, but he is a hard act to follow, and his leadership has been tremendous. The focus on execution has been fantastic, and I think John was very smart to bring on a really strong Vice Chair. I worked with Samantha Paxson for my entire career at Co Op, and I know that she’s a very good partner in that. And likewise, I needed to name a vice chairman, and so I asked Chris Rowe, who’s legal counsel for true stage, if he’d be willing to be my vice chair. And I’ve already seen evidence that that was a great idea. We had a meeting on Friday, and he had 100 great ideas and not just ideas, but ways that we can follow up on them, because we can’t leave the good ideas on the flip charts. We’ve got to turn this into action. And so, you know, we’ve, we’ve got a goal of more than $20 million in funds raised this year. We want to grow that by 5% every year. You that doesn’t just accidentally happen. We’ve got to put new tools in place. And Chris has just great thoughts on how to how to make that happen. And then, of course, I have to mention Nick Coleman, who has been our point person at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, specifically the CU for Kids program. He recently got a big promotion, and he is helping us with you. Kind of the what are the best practices throughout the system, what would be relevant for credit unions? And then he helps us get it done together with Melissa, Gal, who’s been also a great partner in helping us get, for example, the bourbon barbecue and bands event off the ground. So it is not any singular person. It’s people who are willing to take a leadership position, but bring a lot of other people along. We’ve also got some really strong board members, so I’m very excited if I do half as good a job as John what John did, then I’ll be doing well, awesome.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, we, we host our fab karaoke collab. We always have, like, a fundraiser for children, Miracle Network, nothing like you guys are raising but yeah, I’m going to ask a very controversial question. Hopefully there’s no fights here. What’s the best event? What’s your favorite event?
Caroline Willard
Well, of course, I love my own event, because it’s all my people in my region. I love, I love, love looking around and seeing everybody all, dude, it up. You know, dance. There are others that raise more money. But, you know, oftentimes, for me, what it comes back down to is the people. So that’s I’m gonna have to name my own.
John Bratsakis
But, yes, yeah, I would say, outside of ours, I think what, what I found when I got here, and I remember, this was Theresa Man, Charlie Mallon, Yuri valdov, that were all involved in the race, like they talked about, well, what makes us so much different? And Charlie would always talk about, and Teresa, they have this thing where it puts in front of Congress, credit unions. And Sarah, you ran in the race, so you see this. I mean, having credit unions, you know, plastered all throughout Dc, on Capitol Hill, and it’s something that we get to go through, you know, we get hundreds and hundreds of honorary co chairs. So that’s a great experience, too. But as far as events, I mean, the Northwest, I’m a golfer, so Northwest classic was the Hank and moose was really cool. But you know, one thing that really got involved in Diana Dykstra and I became very close and going to the wine option and seeing at the time, that was before we had a gala, before bourbons barbecue and bands before in the cellar. You know, there was the Northwest classic, and you had the California wine auction. And to just see everybody pour themselves into, no pun intended, but pour themselves into the wine auction. It was so impactful, just to see the scale of it and how they, you know, and if you were not from, you know, the region, the way they embrace people that came and you know, you never felt pressure to spend money, per se, you were there for a fundraiser. And I think that’s the one challenge sometimes is these are fundraisers, and it doesn’t matter how much you raise. I know Kentucky is doing a bourbon raffle for their local one. It’s not the amount. It’s about getting crediting together for a common cause, like we do so often. That, to me, is what cu for kids is all about.
Sarah Cooke
I’m a big fan of the wine poles too, that the Maryland,
John Bratsakis
yeah, we do the wine poll,
Caroline Willard
John, you just made me think of something that it’s just sort of spontaneous. But Nick Coleman from CMN joined me on Hill visits this year during GDC. And so as we’re talking about why credit unions deserve their tax exemption, he gets to sort of be the color commentator about, here’s this thing that we do nationwide. I mean, this is helping sick children throughout the country. And it was, it turned out to be incredibly impactful. And lawmakers sat up and took notice, because they thought, well, I didn’t even know you had that partnership. So yeah,
Sarah Cooke
and at the same time, like, where the race, like you were mentioning John, you know, you got members of Congress as co chairs, and you have probably some good, many of their staff running the race.
John Bratsakis
Yeah, we, we had over 850 staffers running in the race, and there’s a separate competition for them. So we have, you know, there’s a Senate cup, there’s a house cup that, you know, for the fastest team, and Senate and congressional, federal credit unions. They, they go out, they present that again, it’s just more connections to what’s done. I, yeah. It’s just, it’s incredibly impactful,
Sarah Cooke
yeah, yeah. And certainly, as you mentioned, Caroline a reason to maintain this tax status. And one of the many, it’s, it’s insane. Saying that it’s even a question. But So Caroline, what do you think? Do you have any ideas for new initiatives and things that might be starting up in the future?
Caroline Willard
Well, sure, we just had a planning meeting on Friday and talked about some things that we are going to continue. And, as John said earlier, amplify, because John and Samantha did such a good job of putting together a really solid strategic plan, and we’re going to stay that course and just push even harder. For example, there, there is an ability to do fundraising at the ATM, you know, some credit unions. I think John was saying a second ago that desert financial was the first to do it. The Westcom credit union in Pasadena has done it, and then others have followed. But it gives you the ability in like in Westcom’s case, I know what they do is charge foreign transaction fees that’s a little bit higher, and so that incremental income goes toward CMN, which is fabulous and it’s a pretty low friction way to raise funds. So we’re going to put our foot on the accelerator for that particular program, because I think we need to supplement the signature events with some transactional type of getting that’s important. We definitely want to drive home the connection between financial health and physical health, because we know that medical debt is the number one reason for financial ruin, for bankruptcy in the United States, and so what we’re doing is so directly related to the credit union mission of people helping people. We’re helping people avoid financial ruin by supplementing the or subsidizing the cost of care and not just care for individuals, but also new equipment and technology for hospitals, so to make our communities healthier. So we believe that there’s a really strong correlation. We know there is. Statistically, it’s been proven that there is a correlation between financial and physical health. So we’ll put our foot on that accelerator as well. So many good ideas, too many to name here, but those are a few that are top of mind that we were going to push on.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, so many people don’t correlate the money, yes, stress with their physical health. That’s just Yeah. I mean, you feel it, but you don’t necessarily recognize it, I guess so, yeah, truly, very important. So I always allow my guests final thoughts as we wrap up here, John, I’m going to start with you. What would you like to leave our credit union audience with?
John Bratsakis
So what I would suggest is to share with each other. I think one of the things that we found is, and I use this example, you know, desert Financial has done so many different, really cool things, and Darren was sitting in a meeting, and that’s where the ATM idea or discussion had come up. And by the end of the meeting, Darren had already worked with his team. They had already activated. And I think when we talked about embracing this event idea, right, all of a sudden it was in the cellar, teachers, federal credit unions, golf outing out in California, out in New York, and then Carolina bourbon barbecue and bands. And then I’ll, you know, down at the League of credit unions and affiliates, everybody’s, you know, embracing that and trying to, you know, let’s accelerate what we’re doing and be willing to try new things. As Caroline said, I know Valera is working on ways to leverage, you know, mobile banking, so people can do giving through mobile banking, which would be the closest we can get to transactional giving, like these other folks do. But it’s been, it’s been an honor and a privilege to work with the board, to work with CMN and Caroline and, you know, Sarah, bang, and I just could go on and on with the folks, and I got to throw a thank you out to Tom Sargent, because when I went to that outing, Tom was such a passionate person for it, and it kind of creates a burden, I wouldn’t say burden, but it creates a responsibility, I think, that you have when you Get involved in things like this, that people did this, you know, with passion. And we talk about mission, structure, purpose, and our purpose is our passion. And I think that’s what makes us different, not just saying people, helping people, but living it.
Sarah Cooke
Yeah, yeah. Love it. Caroline wraps up
Caroline Willard
Well, John teed me up so well, because I in when you ask the question, Sarah, I was thinking, ultimately, it’s always about the people. I mean, you’ve got to be striving toward a relevant, compelling mission, but I think about our need to find new champions, right? We had John and I were both in. Inspired by Tom Sargent, who’s no longer with us. I was inspired by Stan Holland at Co Op when he came up with a miracle match program. You know, Tony Botel with the wine auction, who’s really just carried it forward with lots of partners, the folks in the Go West region, specifically first tech, with their Northwest Golf Classic, who are the next generation of leaders, and we’ve got to be bringing them into the fold now. We’ve got to be helping them see the vision now, so that this continues that, so that this is relevant. And we’re not looking at 20 or 21.8 5 million in the coming year, but we’re looking at 30 or $50 million of impact in our communities. But it takes talented, dedicated people who have a love for this cause, and so that will be, I think, one of the keys to our success moving forward, probably the biggest key.
Sarah Cooke
Gotta surpass Walmart. Gotta
Caroline Willard
It’s gotta beat Walmart absolutely awesome.
Sarah Cooke
Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Appreciate it. Have a good rest of your days.