Credit unions, Woodmen Center program topics
Two important and relatively new additions to Kinston's business landscape provided grist for programs presented in August to the Noon Rotary Club of Kinston.
Ashley Pierce of Self-Help Credit Union, the city's newest financial institution, explained to club members the differences between credit unions and banks during the Aug. 1 program.
“Credit unions are community-based, member-owned financial institutions,” said Pierce, who is also a club member. “They don’t exist to make a profit but to serve member-owners.”
For Self-Help, those members come from Lenoir and Greene counties in three “fields of membership” – community, associational and the workplace. It is one of five credit unions in Kinston and one of about 87 in the state.
“North Carolina is really rich in credit unions,” Pierce said, “and they all have a people-helping-people philosophy.”
On Aug. 25, Danny Rice of Kinston, a national leader in the Woodmen of the World organization, reported on a very successful first year of operation for the Woodmen Community Center, the fitness and recreation center that WOW built here with financial help from local government. The facility doubles as a community meeting space and a site for regional WOW functions.
It’s also the site of the wildly successful water park built with a donation from Lions Industries for the Blind here.
“I’m so proud of our community because we dared to soar and so many of our activities have seen results,” Rice said. He reported the fitness center would end its first year with about 2,500 memberships and about 9,000 members. “The Woodmen could not be happier,” he said.
Rice conceded that “We've got a lot of fine tuning to do,” primarily in water park operations. “We’ve been overwhelmed this summer.”
Bill Ellis, director of the Kinston-Lenoir County Parks and Recreation Department, which operates the center and the water park, agreed. “Sometimes you get more than you wish for,” he said in adding to Rice’'s remarks.
This summer he said the water park, which closed for the season on Labor Day, drew about 2,500 people on a typical Saturday and turned away a thousand because it was at capacity.
Day care participates in food program
DEEP RUN – The Deep Run Child Care Center, Inc., 2397 John Green Smith Road, has announced its participation in the federal Child and Adult Care Food Program.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program provides meals at no separate charge to enrolled participants. The income guidelines for free and reduced price meals by family size are available. Children who are TANF recipients or who are members of SNAP or FDPIR households or are Head Start participants are automatically eligible to receive free meal benefits. Adult participants who are members of food stamp or FDPIR households or who are SSI or Medicaid participants are automatically eligible to receive free meal benefits.
In accordance with the federal law and USDA policy, the center cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.
For more information or a copy of the eligibility guidelines, call the center at 252-568-4723.