Scott Credit Union Recognized for Giving Back to Community

Scott Credit Union has won first place awards in three categories of the Illinois Credit Union League’s annual state-wide awards competition.

The credit union won the top prize in categories focused on youth financial education, social responsibility and credit union philosophy in action.

Scott Credit Union won first place awards in the greater than $1 billion asset categories for its partnership with the Collinsville/Maryville/Troy YMCA’s Day Camp, for its Savings Detector tool, and for its involvement with the American Cancer Society’s Farm to Table fundraiser.

“We partnered with the local YMCA to provide financial education to grade school students during the camp,” said SCU Community Relations Supervisor Jennifer Hess. “There is a real need for youth financial education so we custom designed a program with a ‘Save, Spend, Share’ theme to help them learn about handling money.”

Financial education had not been part of the camp in the past, Hess noted.

“It is an important part of our mission to provide financial education to students who need it,” Hess added. “Our partnership with the YMCA was a great fit to help us fulfill that need.”

Scott Credit Union also received a first-place award for its Savings Detector tool that helps members save money.

“The tool is very powerful. If a member has an auto loan or credit card balance at another financial institution, it does the math and lets them know if we can save them money by refinancing the debt to SCU” Hess said. “Savings Detector saved our members over $565,000 in 2016.”

The tool is a perfect way to prove the value of doing business with a not-for-profit financial cooperative credit union, Hess said.

“Many people carry high-rate balances on credit cards,” Hess noted. “Savings Detector tells them how much they could save if they move the balance to our low rate credit card.”

Scott Credit Union also won a first-place award for 25 of its employees volunteering over 80 hours to assist with the American Cancer Society’s inaugural Farm to Table Metro-East event.

“We were asked to serve as the volunteer chair of the event,” Hess noted. “We really believe in giving back to the people in our community and supporting the American Cancer Society’s events is another way for us to do just that.”

The Farm to Table event raised more than $130,000 for the fight against cancer, Hess noted.

“It was a really great event which was billed as the culinary event of the year in Edwardsville,” Hess said. “We managed the volunteers to make this event a success. It really takes a lot of people and a lot of hard work to handle all of the logistics and pull off an event of that size.”

Scott Credit Union has a long-time partnership with the American Cancer Society in our region, Hess added.

“We are the regional sponsor of the Relay for Life events and even Hosted the ACS Mardi Gras Ball in 2014,” she said.

Representatives from Scott Credit Union were recognized at an awards luncheon during the Credit Union League’s Annual Convention this spring in Schaumburg, Ill.

Scott Credit Union has made giving back to its communities a major priority. The local credit union contributed more than $424,000 and its employees volunteered more than 2,400 hours to a variety of local civic efforts throughout the region in 2017.

“We realize that without our members and the communities in which we serve, we would not exist as a financial alternative,” Hess said. “That is why it is so important for us to give back and support the communities in which we have locations.”

Scott Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative that is member owned. The credit union has given $10 million back to members through a bonus dividend and loan interest rebate over the past 10 years.

Scott Credit Union is open to anyone who lives or works in a 17 county area, including Madison, St. Clair, Monroe, Randolph, Perry, Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Clinton, Marion, Bond, Macoupin, Montgomery, Fayette, Effingham, Williamson, and Jackson counties. Anyone who lives or works in St. Louis County, Missouri also can open accounts at SCU. Additionally, anyone active or retired military also can have accounts with Scott Credit Union.

Scott Credit Union currently has 15 area locations: Scott Air Force Base, East Belleville, Fairview Heights, Collinsville, O’Fallon, Edwardsville, Waterloo, Highland, Caseyville, West Belleville, Millstadt, Mascoutah, Troy, Wood River and its Home Office in Edwardsville.

For details on opening accounts at Scott Credit Union, visit www.scu.org, call 1-800-888-4728, or stop by any of the credit union’s branches.