Nov. 5 may have been Bank Transfer Day but management at the$985 million AmeriCU of Rome, N.Y., knew about some otherpriorities — supporting the troops and its members by taking partin the re-organized Central New York Veterans Day Parade &Expo.

As a sponsor for the day-long Syracuse event, AmeriCU dispatchedstaff including Judith Repass Cowden, vice president-memberrelations/marketing, to a new fairgrounds site. In past years theveteran's event held in downtown Syracuse had seen dwindlingattendance.

“On behalf of everyone at AmeriCU Credit Union, I want to thankyou for helping us honor our veterans today and this is especiallyimportant to us because AmeriCU has a 60-year history servingmembers of the military,” Cowden told the crowd.

AmeriCU, in particular, said Cowden seeks to honor “threemembers of the AmeriCU family who have just returned from aone-year deployment in Afghanistan with the 10^thMountain Division.” The division is based at Fort Drum in Upstate New York.

“The 10^th Mountain Division is one of the mostdeployed divisions in the Army today and being able to help thefamilies stay connected is a great way for AmeriCU to give back,”Cowden said.

Though AmeriCU was closed Friday for Veterans Day, AmeriCU saidit has already begun preparations for its annual holidayparticipation in “Operation Best Wishes,” the video recordingservice broadcasting the interactive messages from home. Theprogram is now in its fourth year at AmeriCU, said Tina M.Wildhaber, the credit union's regional manager at FortDrum.

“Last year we held Operation Best Wishes as part of the FortDrum MWR Christmas Party and all of the time slots werefilled with families (and some pets) coming in to record aholiday message to their deployed family member,” saidWildhaber.