News & Notes 

GCS hosts food drive.  GCS Federal Credit Union hosted a "People Helping People Food Drive" Oct. 1 – 31 in celebration of International Credit Union Day.  The food drive helped to supply canned and boxes food items to food pantries in Madison and St. Clair counties.  Each GCS location had a food drop-off box decorated in the "People Helping People" theme. Those who donated were entered into a drawing to win a $100 Visa gift card.  One winner was to be chosen. Members and non-members alike were asked to donate and were eligible to win.

Heritage celebrates 75 years.  Heritage Credit Union kicked off its 75th Anniversary celebration last month at its seven branches located throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. The story of Heritage Credit Union sounds much like the origins of the very first financial cooperative.  Heritage grew out of the desire to help ordinary people live better lives.  Adolph C. Bolz, the brother-in-law of founder Oscar F. Mayer, recognized a need during the struggles of the Great Depression when Bolz opened his own billfold to lend the employees of Oscar Mayer a few dollars between paychecks. In October of 1934, the practice was made permanent when Approved Credit Union was incorporated.  Over the years Oscar Mayer went through changes as all businesses do.  The credit union recognized the need to maintain strength and stability and did that by adding other employee groups to their membership for steady growth. In 1982, the credit union changed its name to Heritage Credit Union to better reflect the entire membership.  Today Heritage Credit Union serves 20,000 members in two states.  Heritage has five Wisconsin branches and two branches in Illinois, one in Rockford and Galesburg.

Naperville kids learn about how to be "Biz Kid$".  During International Credit Union Week, Melanie Murphy, ICUL manager of Member Services, led more than 30 kids, including 2 Girl Scout Troops through a one-hour Biz Kid$ presentation at the Naperville Public Library.  Since this was an introductory session, they viewed episode 101 "What is a Biz Kid?"  BizKid$ is a fun, fast-paced series designed to teach kids about money which is produced by the Emmy Award-winning creators of "Bill Nye the Science Guy."  Each episode features compelling stories about kid entrepreneurs and reinforces the importance of budgeting, saving and giving back to the community.  The objective of the show is to engage kids and help them develop life skills in the areas of financial literacy and entrepreneurship.Many of those in attendance knew what the word entrepreneur meant.  The kids also watched parts of the episode featuring the Biz Kids profiles.  After the video, they were divided into six groups to participate in an activity.  They practiced some Biz Kid$ skills by working together and brainstorming ideas for some businesses.  Each group had to select a recorder who wrote down the ideas and a reporter who shared the ideas out loud with everyone.  Each group shared the ideas they generated.  From pet sitting to aviation schools to theme parks to cheese farms, they created many interesting business ideas.