Affinity in the Community

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – our employees have the biggest hearts. While the pandemic created volunteering challenges due to social distancing and minimizing contacts, our employees still managed to up their game in 2021 to safely support causes and initiatives that are near and dear to them. In fact, a total of 707.63 hours of paid volunteer time were claimed by our employees, which equals out to 98.28 days! Check out a few initiatives we proudly supported in 2021!

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Gardening in the City

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Shawn Osier, Advice Centre Manager of Regina and Area, was pleased to present a $5,000 cheque to Aria Ramdeo, Executive Director for Heritage Community Gardens project in Regina. These funds went to help with the community pantry of fresh produce, where community members will be able to come and get fresh vegetables to harvest.

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Challenging employees in the name of charity

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Planting trees in Affinity gear

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Bringing the joy of the unknown to you

During the month of June, a few employees from our St. Mary’s Advice Centre challenged the folks at City Centre to a friendly competition to see who could collect the most hygiene products for the Food Bank. They broke up into teams and together, they were able to donate over 700 products to people in need! We joined our friends from Zak’s Building, Tree Canada and the Town of Hague to help plant more than 180 trees in Hague! Beautiful weather, great company and helping the environment – we’d say that’s a pretty great way to spend a volunteer day.

The Affinity Learning Centre reopened to the public in 2021 with a few exciting additions! The redesigned layout and new and amazing exhibits will be home to several new species, such as the colourful poison dart frogs, axolotl and a variety of cichlids from Lake Malawi, Africa.

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Filling plates with food and care

Our Saskatoon and area employees raced – and we do mean raced (this volunteer option was claimed within minutes by our employees) to volunteer for The Friendship Inn’s annual Fill the Plate campaign. Our employees were honoured to host on December 22 because they know the important role The Friendship Inn plays in our community. Did you know The Friendship Inn serves approximately 1,000 meals every day? It relied on volunteers to help make that happen and our employees delivered.

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Coming together to create a big impact

The team at our Borden Advice Centre pooled their 2020 charity day funds and donated the money to the Borden and District Volunteer Fire Department. The crew in Borden didn’t stop there — they also gifted the Borden school students with a pizza lunch and treated the teachers to coffee and donuts before the semester ended.

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Competing for a great cause

Our Estevan Advice Centre was one of the six local organizations that participated in the Green for Life Environmental’s annual food drive challenge. We built a living room set out of non-perishable food items, which landed us in 2nd place! Angela Denys, Estevan Advice Centre Team Lead, says this is just another form of living the credit union values. “Times are hard for some families and being able to offer a small support is incredibly rewarding,” said Denys. This helped to fill the shelves of the Estevan Salvation Army’s Food Bank during a time it was greatly needed.

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Making a list & checking it twice with BBBS

We joined forces with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Saskatoon and Area Inc. (BBBS) for its Ignite a Little Sparkle campaign by matching donations all week in December. We encouraged members of the community to consider giving to BBBS during the holiday season as they reflect on what they’re grateful for.

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Putting an end to period poverty

Tampon Tuesday is an initiative that raises awareness around period poverty and shows us all how we can help. In 2021, our employees donated $3,235, which went towards purchasing menstrual care products for those who need it in our community, to Moon Time Sisters, United Way of Saskatoon & Area and United Way Regina.

Even with our donation drive in a different format in 2021, our employees more than doubled their overall 2020 donation total. No matter how great the challenge, we’re committed to building a better world and supporting our communities every step of the way!