One of the National Credit Union Foundation's more unusualgrants this year went to the 28,000-member $201 million assetCarter Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Springhill, La.

The foundation provided $25,000 for the credit union to producefinancial education trailers that will run before movies at afilm camp popular with local children during the hot Louisianasummers.

But while the idea's unusual creativity and entrepreneurialspirit won the CU the grant, Susan Brunner, director of communitydevelopment at Carter FCU, said it was entirely in the spirit ofFloyd Carter, the man who organized and launched the credit unionin 1954.

“Yes, there really was a Carter,” Brunner said. “Floyd Carter,and we think his story is one that would resonate a lot rightnow.”

Springhill (population almost 6,000) is about as far north andwest as you can get in Louisiana and still be in the state. Thetown sits on the border with Arkansas, in the middle of countrydominated by hard-scrabble fields, small cattle operations, pinewoods and the occasional oil and gas well.

It was the town's location in the middle of the region's pineresources, Brunner said, that first drew the firmInternational Paper to the area and helped bring about the start ofthe credit union.

According to Brunner and credit union executives, Carter FederalCredit Union got its start in the noisy, smelly bosom ofInternational Paper's plant in Springhill and got its name fromFloyd Carter, International Paper's paymaster at that plant.

Carter got the idea for the CU, according to credit unionexecutives, because he knew the workers at the plant very well andcame to know how their financial lives were often made much moredifficult by not having any financial education or access toloans.

“One of the things I remember most about Mr. Carter was the wayhe knew every man's clock number,” said Joyce Butler, retiredteacher and chairwoman of the Carter Federal Credit Union's boardof directors.

Butler explained that the plant used to issue checks on paydayaccording to the employee's name and number he used when clockingin and out of the plant. Carter knew the men at the plant so well,Butler explained, that he could look at a man and know the man'sname and clock number immediately.

That closeness allowed Carter insight into the pressures theworkers often felt that led them to loan sharks and other forms ofhigh interest loans, Butler said.

“He could see that there was a basic need for both education andan institution to help them both learn what to do and to do it,”she said.

Butler remembered Carter and the early days of the credit unionwell, as her father was one of the first members of the CU's boardof directors when she was a little girl. “The credit union hasalmost been part of the family,” she said, recalling that she hadtaken her young children and grandchildren to open their firstaccounts at the CU.

Over the years, the industrial nature of Springhill, the creditunion and its members changed. In 1979, International Paper closedthe Springhill plant as part of an overall downsizing that had animpact on the whole region.

The closing forced the CU to step up an expansion plan, much ofit through mergers, that it had already begun. This expansion ledfinally to the CU adopting a community field of membership in 2001that covered seven surrounding parishes (counties in Louisiana) andtwo counties in neighboring Arkansas.

The expansion also led to some soul searching about the CU'sname and identity, with some in the credit union, particularly theCEO at the time, wanting to change the name.

“I think he wanted us to have a name that was more modern and upto date,” explained Butler. “You know credit unions have thesefancy names these days. I saw one just a few days ago, Wingvine orsomething like that, but we didn't want to change the name.”

Instead, when the former CEO left in 2005, Carter FCU hiredJames Gibson, a longtime credit union professional who had beenborn in the region and returned home. Gibson was an executive thatButler said took a sharply different approach.

“He liked our name and rather than change it, he wanted to buildon it,” Butler said. “He said we are already known as Carter FCU,and we should keep on being known as that, but we should add towhat that means,” she added.

One of the things Gibson did was to draw a clearer line fromFloyd Carter to the work the CU is doing today. This meant not onlykeeping the name but also researching and publicizing the creditunion's roots in the community and convincing Carter's relatives todonate one of Carter's uniforms from World War 1 to the creditunion, where it is reverentially displayed in the lobby of the CU'sSpringhill branch.

Gibson also saw the credit union apply for, and receive,recognition as a community development financial institution and to startoffering more products and services aimed at helping members avoidthe pitfalls of payday loans.

“Much like Carter, I believe financial education is key to somany things,” Gibson said. “Good things when you have it, and badthings when you don't.”

The CU also launched a “Salary Advance Loan” product meant tocompete with payday lenders by offering loans of between $100 and$500 for 15% APR, a rate sharply lower than surroundinglenders.

Gibson said the CU kept the process of obtaining and repayingthe loan as easy as possible to compete with payday lenders andtook steps to increase financial education, particularly aroundsavings, so that members will eventually not have to turn to thesalary advance loans at all.

Other products that CU launched aimed to help lower incomemembers included loans designed to build a credit history to wherethey would be able to obtain a share-secured or eventuallyunsecured Visa cards and college savings plans to help them savefor their kids’ educations.

But among innovations that may have the biggest impact, Gibsonsaid, was a member business lending CUSO that the credit unionstarted as a way to build upon and leverage business lendingexpertise.

Gibson said the idea arose after an examiner had challenged himabout the amount of expertise the CU had on business loans,suggesting that the CU should not make them.

But Gibson said Carter FCU knew all too well the need forbusiness lending among its members, particularly those looking tostart new businesses. So he sought to pull resources and expertiseto be able to offer business loans more efficiently and safely.

Now Carter FCU has 178 member business loans worth over $10million on its books, according to NCUA, and the CUSO has 10 creditunions participating, he said.

“I am not sure Floyd Carter would recognize everything aboutwhat we do,” Gibson said, “but I am pretty sure he would be proud.We are still building on his legacy and still helping membersimprove their financial lives,” he added.