KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- No one has thrown an annual meeting quite like CommunityAmerica Credit Union did recently.

The credit union's annual meeting took place at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, and a festival atmosphere and drawing for $4,000 in prizes helped drive attendance at the annual meeting from the typical 200 in past years to nearly 4,000 this year.

Member-owners munched hot dogs in baseball stadium seats, families strolled the base-paths, children with painted faces turned somersaults in the outfield, a live band belted out classic rock tunes from just above the left field wall, plus there were fireworks, moonwalks, video games and the Kansas City T-Bones mascot, Sizzle, high-fived kids from atop the dugout.

The highlight of the night's festivities was the mechanical bull-riding display put on by Dennis Pierce, CEO of Community America Credit Union. It was fulfillment of a pledge Pierce had made to employees as an incentive to raise more than $30,000 for Junior Achievement during their annual Bowl-a-thon. The credit union not only broke the record, they shattered it, raising $38,618.12 for the financial education organization, more than any other organization has collected in the fundraising event's 23 years.

With Matt Dillane, president and executive director of Junior Achievement at the bull's controls, Pierce hung on for 22.3 seconds. He then boosted the CommunityAmerica donation to Junior Achievement by an additional $5,000 making the grand total $43,618.12.

To start the "formal" part of the meeting, Board Chairman Allison Waggoner declared that the gathering was "a celebration of credit union membership." She presided over the election of board members and announced the nonprofit's 2006 owner-participation dividend of $1 million.

Summing up the past year's performance, Pierce said CommunityAmerica had added more than 10,000 new members, opened several new branches, and has a healthy capitalization rate of 12 percent.