Then, the pandemic hit and everything changed. Students were sent home to learn remotely, annual events were cancelled or went virtual, and some non-essential businesses shut down.

Our sponsorships dropped to only nine requests for April and May. At the end of October, our total numbers had reached just over 400 requests. These are definitely not typical times.

Despite these challenges, Redstone continues to find ways to reach our community and bring financial education to students, support businesses and provide a lifeline to many non-profits. If this year has taught us anything, it's that we can work around obstacles to meet our members and communities where they are and serve them there.

Virtual Financial Education

Redstone introduced its Adopt-A-School Program in 2018 to create an avenue for employees to build stronger relationships with students, faculty and staff at area schools. Thirty-one of our branches and departments participate in the Adopt-A-School Program. These teams volunteer at schools throughout multiple counties, provide needed supplies, and serve as lunch buddies, field day helpers, guest speakers, mentors and so much more.

As schools began plans to reopen in the fall, this program gave us a direct pipeline into the schools to find out how we could help.

Returning to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic created significant anxiety for parents, teachers and students alike. We sent 2,000 masks to 35 schools located in our service footprint and provided hand sanitizer to several schools as well. We also sent greeting cards to these schools to let their employees know that we were there for them.

Our financial education team, which had previously taught classes in the schools and at other community agencies, began to host webinars for those entities to access online. The team also created videos that were less serious, more fun and taught lessons that young people could easily identify with, such as "Wants vs. Needs."

Redstone had purchased promotional items that we planned to give out during April's National Credit Union Youth Month. When that event was cancelled as part of our efforts to help prevent the spread of the virus, we donated those items to our local libraries to support their youth programs.

Reaching Out to Community Partners

One of Redstone's guiding principles is to "Be the catalyst for positive change in our communities." When the pandemic was declared and personal protective equipment was needed, Redstone donated N95 masks to hospitals in Huntsville, Ala., and Murfreesboro, Tenn.

That was just the beginning.

Redstone's assistant vice president for community relations, Mary Grace Evans, said her team proactively reached out to their community partners.

"We worked with all partners that had to cancel events to work out the best solution for everyone,'' Evans said. "In many cases, payment had already been made. We did not ask the non-profit to return those funds. Many rescheduled their events, many converted to virtual events, some moved our sponsorship to 2021 and sadly, many were not able to successfully pivot. We worked personally with each organization."

Redstone also gifted back tickets to events that our employees would ordinarily attend.

Some non-profits sought cash donations. With the number of agencies and non-profits that we generally support, there was no way to do that for everyone, so we found a better way.

Redstone contributed to the Emergency Relief Fund set up by the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville. The fund gave money to organizations that help people with their basic needs, health and wellness.

We also supported chambers of commerce and other organizations providing grants or microloans to small businesses.

Our employees also held food drives, diaper drives, and drives for personal care items and socks to support programs for the homeless or those transitioning out of homelessness.

These community organizations and non-profits consider us their partners because that's what we are. Because of our decades-long commitment to them, they know they can count on us during difficult times.

Our cooperative will celebrate 70 years in 2021. We were founded to serve people of modest means who need access to credit. That has fundamentally not changed in all these years.

While we remain true to our vision and mission, we must continue to ask ourselves: How can we make this a better place – even during a pandemic?

And that's how we expect to thrive over the next 70 years.

Joe Newberry

Joe Newberry President/CEO Redstone FCU Huntsville, Ala.