While the mood throughout south Florida remains somber following the shooting deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Valentine's Day, credit unions throughout Broward County are rallying behind the school community and the victims' families whose hearts have been broken.

Police said the 19-year-old suspect in Florida, Nikolas Cruz, used an AR-15 rifle that killed 14 students, a teacher, a football coach and an athletic director. The gunman also injured 14 more, according to national media reports. Investigators described the suspect as a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media and had been expelled from the high school for “disciplinary reasons,” the Associated Press reported.

“I can assure you that every member that we have, every staff member that we have, this morning felt differently when dropping their children off for school,” reflected Dustin Jacobs, vice president of marketing for the $462 million BrightStar Credit Union. “It's very close to home for all of us.”

The Sunrise, Fla.-based cooperative was originally chartered as the Broward Schools Credit Union.

“It's definitely hit our credit union hard,” Jacobs said. “We have very close relationships with all of the schools we serve, but in particular, this is a school that we work closely with.” The credit union has been working with high school officials to introduce a new financial education program in the fall.

In an effort to offset the costs of grief counseling and to help the families involved, BrightStar made a donation to Broward Schools Thursday. The credit union also is promoting the official GoFundMe page set up Thursday by the Broward Education Foundation. The funds will be used to support the victims' families.

In just one day, more than $1 million has been donated by 16,000 people as of 5 p.m. eastern time on Friday.

In addition, cooperatives that are members of the Broward Chapter of Credit Unions, will be holding a 50/50 raffle next week to raise funds for the families, said Amy McGraw, chapter president and vice president of marketing at the $695 million Tropical Financial Credit Union in Miramar.

TCU has donated $5,000 to support the victims' families and $5,000 to the high school. The credit union also is sponsoring a blood drive next week and invited employees and members to participate.

In addition to financial contributions, McGraw is looking to see if credit unions can play a role in supporting the families' immediate needs because there is going to be some lag time before the funds will be distributed.

“I'm suggesting things like restaurant gift cards so that the families can order food and not have to think about it, or anything else that we can do to fill those tangible needs that we are not aware of now,” she explained. “Once we find out what those needs are, we'll spread the word around the chapter to see if we can step up to provide those tangible things the families will need.”

In addition to BrightStar and Tropical, members of the Broward chapter include the $520 million We Florida Financial CU in Margate, the $72 million Broward Healthcare FCU in Fort Lauderdale, the $76 million Connect CU in Fort Lauderdale, the $64 million Memorial Employees FCU in Hollywood, the $20 million Pompano Beach City Employees CU, the $93 million Priority One CU of Florida in Sunrise, the $84 million Sun CU in Hollywood, and the $645 million Power Financial CU in Pembroke Pines.

Instant Insights /

Florida CUs Rally for High School Shooting Victims & Families

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