WASHINGTON — CUNA employees greeted busy Capitol Hill staffers and others by opening doors with a smile and offering to escort commuters with umbrellas to shield them from the rain Oct. 24.
As part of CUNA's Little Guy campaign to change the conversation on Capitol Hill, CU Helper Day aimed to be a highly visible and tangible demonstration of credit unions looking out for the Little Guy. Mints with message cards were also distributed at the Capitol South Metro station. The front of the card read: "Lots of things can leave a bad taste in your mouth. Coffee. Onions. $3 ATM fees." On the back it said: "Mints fix the first two. Credit unions fix the third." More than 1,500 boxes of mints were distributed to commuters emerging from the Capitol South metro station and to select House offices.
About 20 "helpers," including 11 CUNA staffers, also donned their Little Guy t-shirts with the campaign's Web address: lookoutforthelittleguy.org.
"Our effort was aimed at driving home the real mission of credit unions: To help people, particularly their members. These modest attempts of opening doors, holding umbrellas and offering a fresh mint for the morning were a simple way to make that point," CUNA Vice President of Communications Pat Keefe said. He said the mints went quickly and they had to scramble the last hour of the excursion to come up with buttons and other LG items to hand out.
Keefe said a number of members of Congress–whom he declined to identify other than as some senior House Financial Services Committee members among others–were subjects of the helping acts, as well as numerous staff members and visitors to Capitol Hill. "Generally, people were very appreciative of our efforts, and a good number asked us for more information about why and what we were doing. When we explained our connection to credit unions, we heard more than once 'I love my credit union.'"
Keefe also highlighted evidence of the impact the campaign is making. Several of the helpers heard, "there he is again," referring to the Little Guy.
"The connection was pretty strong pretty quickly," Keefe said.
Not everyone was pleased by the credit union efforts. An apparent group of bankers, entering through a door held by a credit union helper, shouted, "credit unions are evil–they should be taxed." The credit union helper just smiled and told them to have a good day, Keefe said.
"Apparently, not everybody was having a cheery day," he said. "Mints can only do so much."
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