Giveback event benefits Florida beach

Armed with gloves, grabbers, and garbage bags, credit union leaders hit St. Pete Beach Sunday morning in Florida.

They collected 300 pounds of garbage, removing sandals, towels, cans, cups, napkins, straws, squirt guns, broken toys, and more from the mile stretch outside the TradeWinds Islands Resorts, home of America’s Credit Unions’ 2024 HR & Organizational Development Council Conference.

Sunday’s event, which kicked off the four-day conference, began with Spencer Park, chief people and administrative officer at Deseret First Credit Union in Salt Lake City. As a member of the HROD Council’s executive committee, Park organized the latest iteration of the conference’s annual giveback event.

He reached out to GTE Financial Credit Union, based in nearby Tampa, for assistance. GTE Financial suggested partnering with The Florida Aquarium, an organization it has worked with in the past, says Scott Works, vice president of marketing.

“They’re such a huge entity in the Tampa Bay area,” Works says. “We knew we wanted to do something with the beach, so they were my first call because they have a heart and a passion for that.”

“We have a very interconnected ecosystem,” says Anthony Mason, manager of philanthropic giving at The Florida Aquarium. “We don’t always think about how tiny fish ingest trash, get eaten by larger animals, and the contaminants work their way up the food chain and can end up in people. Picking up trash helps keep it out of the ocean and out of the environment.”

“Credit unions focus on people helping people and making a difference in the community,” Park adds. “What better opportunity than to have credit union people get together, network, and clean up part of this community and give back to the environment?”

Listen to a conversation with America’s Credit Unions Associate Editor Brock Fritz, Park, Works, and Mason: