Credit union day

The First Trust Credit Union was celebrating Credit Union Day today so I stopped in to have a cookie and see what they were doing.

Credit unions are a lot like banks in the services that they provide to the general public. They make more small loans than banks do, and they are non-profit. You join a credit union, and you are an "owner." Savings and Loan Associations used to be a lot like that, but most of them switched to a for-profit status a couple decades ago.

First Trust was highlighting the fact that you could belong to one credit union and conduct your transactions in the offices of another. So if you belong to PEFCU you could make deposits at First Trust and vice versa. They were not busy when I stopped in and were quite willing to spend time talking to me.

They were planning a big community picnic for Saturday using the SJC lawn adjacent to their parking lot, but that got nixed by SJC. Apparently the proposal to have a pumpkin throwing mechanism was too violent or weapon-like. Maybe next year they will be able to fold their event into some other community event. I hope so--I like the thought of flinging pumpkins. They will still have some food and contests tomorrow morning, but it will be much like what they had today.