LONGVIEW, Wash.–Red Canoe Credit Union is celebrating its 80th anniversary with a community giving project called “80 Things.”
Red Canoe, which began in 1937 as a CU serving employees of a Weyerhaeuser mill and 114 initial members each deposited $1, has now grown to more than $700-million in assets.
As part of the 80 Things initiative, nine organizations were chosen across the Northwest to be the recipients of donation. The list included 80 blankets for the Villager Retirement Center in Castle Rock, Wash.; 80 cases of baby wipes for the Family Tree Relief Nursery in Albany, Ore.; 80 boxes of granola bars for The Youth Advocacy project student testing in Puyallup, Wash.; 80 pounds of dog food and 80 cans of cat food for the Human Society of Cowlitz County; 80 welcome bags for The Emergency Support Shelter in Longview, 80 packs of peanut butter for the Harvest House Food Pantry in Graham, Wash.; 80 breakfast food items for the Community House in Longview, 80 kids activity kids for the Child Justice Advocacy Center in Longview, and 80 high-need food items for the BAG Weekend Feeding Project in Federal Way, Wash .
“Celebrating 80 years is a big deal,” said Amy Davis, Chief Marketing Officer for Red Canoe. “We have a rich history of being a people-driven organization and it’s worth celebrating the uniqueness of who we are, and where we came from, as a part of the credit union movement. Through the process of looking through our archives and old photos for this project, it was clear we had an amazing story to tell and we were going to take advantage of it.”
Red Canoe produced a video, highlighting their founder, Wally Ohlfs, who was an early pioneer in the credit union movement. Ohlfs helped start several credit unions in Washington State, and even helped manage of a few of the other local credit unions in Longview. Ohlfs’ wife, Esther, also played a key role in the credit union’s history. She was the first paid employee for the credit union, and served as acting CEO for two years during WWII.