The Foundation Golf Tournament

Something—in a good way—is cooking at Wampanoag Country Club. Just days after a catastrophic fire, the course was able to make the grounds accessible for golf play, which is great news for the Foundation’s June 18th golf tournament and its club members.

The organizers at the golf course were happy to update us on their “ever improving” situation and I’m glad that credit unions, vendor partners and donors have stepped up and continued to support the event.

As I watch them work hard behind the scenes to make arrangements for our big fundraising event, you can’t help but see the parallels of what they’re doing and the work credit unions do every day.

Just as we are all financial first responders—running in to help members with their own financial crises—the people at the golf course are responding to a unique crisis of their own. No different than credit unions in the pandemic, the course is working on creative solutions of their own, just like credit unions had to do to serve their members.

We’re kindred spirits in our own right—when something happens, we each respond and answer the call by doing whatever it takes to resolve a situation and improve people’s lives.

That’s why we couldn’t think of a better place to have our tournament and why we’re moving forward with our tournament as planned.

There’s something uniquely credit union about pushing forward and having our tournament amid the backdrop of a fire-damaged clubhouse.

This is very much a Phoenix rising from the literal ashes situation. The phoenix is a mythical golden bird that rises from the ashes as a symbol of hope, life and of better things to come, born from the knowledge and experience of difficult times and challenging circumstances.

In life, we try our best to prepare for every possible outcome but sometimes you get thrown a curve ball or something happens that is out of your control. Look no further than your 2020 strategic plan—I bet it didn’t have ‘pandemic response’ in it.

So, join us on June 18th when we make lemonade out of lemons and help us raise $70,000 to help the foundation fulfil its mission of helping people achieve financial independence through credit unions.

Some of you have reached out and offered support and have asked ‘what can we do to help,’ and the best thing we can do as an industry is to flood the course with as many golfers as possible and play the unique hand we’ve been dealt.

I look forward to seeing you out there.