Real People Helping People...

"Ceremony Marks Launch of Lending Hope Initiative... "

 

✅  The Warren Record: February 4, 2026 [link]

Warren County, North Carolina lies below the southern border of Virginia along the Roanoke River. In the 1840's Warren was the wealthiest county in North Carolina, not so much anymore. The Civil War, the advent of the railroads, Jim Crow, and the decline in tobacco and textiles all took their toll. The population is @ 20,000 and declining, median household income is $34,000. Warren County is wooded and rural, civility remains the norm, church-going expected. Folks, for the most part, are personable and caring, families are still tight. It's a nice place to live.

Lending Hope Initiative: "Our mission is to offer small, interest-free loans that assist applicants in managing rent, mortgage payments, utility bills, and deposits." To apply, you must live in Warren County, provide proof of income, and work with volunteers to prepare a budget. The applicant will sign a repayment agreement. "When the money comes back, we will lend to someone else in need." 

✔ What a novel, innovative idea!  Cooperative, community lending to a limited group, sharing a common bond, on a non-profit basis. "I hope a more sustainable model can get going..." [Any ideas?] 

😎 As a credit union, you only become irrelevant, when you're no longer different - just another "industry standard" insignificance, just another unexceptional commodity. A masquerade...

 The original purpose for a credit union may have become lost, the need for credit unions hasn't ! 

 

Credit Union Mergers and Consolidation: A "Clear-cut" Concern ...

 Ever notice how frequently we seem to forget the original insight underlying our castles of complexity?  

Simple truths, like simple pleasures, are often overlooked in our rush from moment to monument.                      

 

Chanced into several patches of clarity recently on the West Coast in Calaveras County. Had ventured west to see the California redwoods. Calaveras County has two of the last remaing groves of these magnificent trees. 

A "Sequoia" redwood is a perfect example of the expression, "You have to see it to believe it." A 300-foot tall tree, 30 feet in circumference? No Easterner will ever accept on faith that the "first limb 150 feet up (!) on the General Sherman Sequoia tree is larger than any tree east of the Mississippi River".  

It's kind of difficult to exaggerate about a Sequoia. "Discovered" in 1852 by Augustus T. Dowd, one of the largest trees was cut and a section shipped east for exhibition. A tree of such size was unthinkable in New York and Boston and the exhibit was roundly branded a hoax. The stump of that tree, by the way, was later covered with a pavilion and used as a dance hall!

Clearly, a case where one can't see the tree for the forests....    

 You may get some feel for the enormous size of these trees when you consider that you've never seen a photograph of all of a Sequoia.   

 

You've seen the bottom part or the top half, but a "full length" photo is a rarity. To capture the full height of a Sequoia requires that you step back so far that you lose perspective!  Sequoias are found only in limited groves in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and require a delicate balance of climate, rainfall, altitude and soil type to prosper. 

 

These giants have extremely shallow root systems and therefore rely heavily on the dense forest for protection against erosion and the forces of the wind. For support and survival, the fragile Sequoia requires the presence of a complex ecosystem, including ponderosa and sugar pines, white fir, dogwood, bracken ferns, incense cedar and an active creek.

Any message here? I thought there might be several... 

The credit union movement represents a dynamic, finely-balanced, eco-financial system. There are many ferns, cedars, firs and ponderosa pines in the CU movement – and yes, a few Sequoias. A substantial amount of "logging" is going on in "our forest." Whether the cutting tools are mergers, liquidations or consolidations; the end result of the current process seems pretty "clear cut". Have we overlooked the fact that even Sequoias, when left standing alone, stripped of support and protection, are unable to resist "the elements"?

Maybe as a movement we've made the choice against "conservation" and I just missed the debate. Maybe we really know where we're going with this furious logging activity. Maybe we shouldn't worry about reforestation. 

 

But... It's a well-known fact that new Sequoias do not sprout from the stumps of past cuttings.  Could the stumps in Calaveras County be eloquent reminders for credit unions of how often our failure to consider the future becomes an irretrievable mistake?  

 

Some CU folks seem to have an  axe - of personal self-interest - to grind on this matter. 

 

😎 On this issue, shouldn't we put aside the axe and sharpen our wits first?

As the saying goes... 

"The first rule of tinkering is to save all the parts."