SHREVEPORT, La. -- After more than a year of fundraising, the credit union industry raised its voice in a show of support honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the tune of $1 million.
"Well, we did it," said an enthusiastic Hubert Hoosman, fundraising chair for the African-American Credit Union Coalition, which has spearheaded a campaign to encourage the credit union movement to donate.
The Martin King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation (www.mlkmemorial.org) has raised $87 million of its $100 million goal to build a monument of King on the National Mall in Washington, the first here to honor an African-American. An expansive visitor center will also feature King's fight for civil rights and equality. The memorial is scheduled to be complete in 2009.
A donor wall will contain the names of those that have raised $1 million or more. Hoosman said he is happy to report that credit unions will have a place on the wall with the inscription "Credit Unions of the United States."
The pledges continue to come in, said Hoosman, who is also president/CEO of $502 million Vantage CU. At least six credit unions have included a donation to the King memorial in their 2008 budgets. The final phase of a national grassroots campaign is gearing up to encourage more leagues to contribute.
As a whole, the industry raised $1,040,363.97.
--msamaad@cutimes.com
