The holidays are the season of giving, and this year employees and members of Arsenal Credit Union (Arnold, MO) helped those less fortunate in the community by purchasing and donating new hats, gloves, mittens and toys for them during two different drives in November and December.
Both efforts were part of the credit unions social responsibility program and were held at all of its branches.
During its "Warm Up Winter" drive, Arsenal collected 229 items and donated everything to local food pantries and schools for distribution to the needy.
For its toy drives, the credit union partnered with the U.S. Marine Corps at one branch and with various local food pantries at other branches, collecting a total of 157 toys.
Throughout the year, the credit union demonstrated its "people helping people" philosophy in other ways, such as employees making 3,716 sack lunches for homeless people at the St. Patrick Center in downtown St. Louis; doing volunteer work at a local food pantry, thrift store and area food bank; giving 79 financial education presentations to 1,326 students at local elementary, middle and high schools; coordinating an annual college scholarship program and awarding $4,200 to area high school seniors; holding a school supply drive and a backpack food drive in the fall that led to 1,136 school supply items and 1,000 food items being donated to local schools and a food pantry; and holding free paper shredding and electronics recycling events for the public in the spring and fall to help people protect their identity and also help protect the environment. The latter events led to 35,118 pounds of paper and 52,446 pounds of electronics not ending up in landfills!
Overall, staff gave 903 hours of volunteer service to the community in 2014, plus countless hours to other causes and charities of their own choice.
