HARRISBURG, Pa. – The Pennsylvania Credit Union Association (PCUA) is seeking help from credit unions around the state in collecting items that demonstrate their rich CU heritage. PCUA, in turn, will display the items in its headquarters to be viewed by visitors and guests. According to Mike Wishnow, senior vice president of communications and marketing, the idea for a "Memorabilia Room" came out of efforts last year in renovating their headquarter buildings, of which the main facility is an old mansion that overlooks the river in the state capital. "What had been a parlor in the old mansion now serves as a nice room when you walk through the lobby entrance to the rest of the building," Wishnow says. "We have conferences in the building and political persons visiting the offices. We thought this parlor would be a really neat place to create a showcase for credit unions in Pennsylvania." PCUA is seeking items of nostalgic value as well as historic value-old passbooks, items with old logos on them, publications (such as annual reports or newsletters), posters, anniversary or Credit Union Day items, corporate seals. Within days of making its announcement about the Memorabilia Room-through a flyer to all credit unions, as well as items in its daily electronic newsletter and weekly hard-copy newsletter-PCUA received several calls about specific items and is in the process of obtaining them. "We put out a call-to-arms to our credit unions, and hopefully they will come up with some unique stuff," Wishnow says. "At its peak, Pennsylvania had somewhere around 1,700 credit unions. Over the years, CUs were renamed and logos were changed in some fashion. Perhaps there's something that hung on the wall somewhere or on the plant door. Or maybe a credit union has its original wax seal. I know there's stuff out there in boxes and basements." Depending on the response from credit unions, PCUA also would consider lending items to America's Credit Union Museum in Manchester, N.H. "We're not creating anywhere near what they have [at the museum]," Wishnow says. "This is just a small piece of Pennsylvania, but sure, we'd love to be able to do that [lend to the museum]. Contributions to the PCUA Memorabilia Room should be sent to: Pennsylvania Credit Union Association, Attn: Communications Department, 4309 North Front Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110. [email protected]

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.