PORTLAND, Maine—The Maine CU League drew more than 700 people and raised some $65,000 to help fight hunger during its annual meeting and convention here.
"We received lots of positive comments from attendees, exhibitors and sponsors about the enthusiasm, program and organization of the Convention and Annual Meeting,” said MCUL CEO John Murphy. “The spirit of cooperation among credit unions certainly came through, and with the record-setting amount raised for the Maine CUs' Campaign for Ending Hunger, the philosophy of 'people helping people' showed, as well.”
Keynote speakers for the convention included Scott Burrows, a star athlete before a serious automobile accident left him a quadriplegic, who told attendees that life is about "vision, mindset and grit, and if you follow those three principles you can go far in life and achieve remarkable things."
Despite being told by doctors he would never walk, Burrows spent thousands of hours working towards that goal and more than 2,000 days after becoming paralyzed did stand up and walked with the help of a cane.
Jackson Hataway addressed the annual meeting and called on credit unions to "identify and retain staff that can be the leaders of tomorrow. Empower and provide the resources for your staff to grow and make decisions that will connect them to the future of the credit union, and you will also have a positive impact on the bottom line."
The closing session speaker was Mark Eaton, whose extraordinary story includes going from a 7'4", 21 year-old auto mechanic who couldn't play basketball to a 12-year career as an NBA All-Star and record holder.