With the end of 2024, we saw our year-long celebration of 75 Years of Dedicated Service come to an end as well. Looking back, it was a truly incredible year for 1st Nor Cal. We saw new opportunities for community involvement and community service, local achievements, and consistent growth. We were involved in philanthropic efforts within our many diverse communities, expanded our financial well-being services, and continued to offer our members dependable, personalized service. Our dedication to the credit union promise, "People Helping People," was demonstrated through these efforts and will continue as we work towards another great year.
Some highlights from 2024 included our end-of-the-year involvement in the annual 96.5 KOIT Cares for Kids Radiothon, benefitting the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals of Oakland and San Francisco, where we matched $0.10 for every transaction made on a 1st Nor Cal Credit Union credit card during the entire month of November. This $0.10 match brought our direct contribution to an incredible $3,062.90. Through the donation matching efforts of our members credit card purchases, as well as the donation efforts before and during the annual 96.5 KOIT Cares for Kids Radiothon, they were able to raise $270,000 for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals of Oakland and San Francisco this past holiday season. It was a truly incredible event!
As an organization based on community, originally serving county employees, then city employees (extending to a few additional cities outside of Martinez), and then adding Solano and Alameda county employees, we have always been dedicated to helping the cities and people around us. Then in 2016, we ultimately decided to become a credit union without walls and opened our doors to anyone living, working, studying or worshiping in Contra Costa, Alameda, and Solano counties who wanted to be a part of our community.
Throughout the year, we also made regular donations to the San Pablo Police Department, including monetary donations as well as gifts for their annual raffle and annual holiday toy drive. We attended events like the Butterfly Festival in Vallejo, the Crockett Sugartown Festival, International Credit Union Day, and Oktoberfest. We also attended several fairs at senior centers where we offered educational materials and shared what 1st Nor Cal could do for them. We participated in Victims' Rights Week, dropped off donations to the Hyland Teen Center, Loaves and Fishes, and the Martinez Cat Lounge, and, of course, made a full weekend appearance at the annual King of the County BBQ and Music Festival in Martinez. Sponsoring local community efforts was also part of our 2024 philanthropy efforts, including the beautiful "Alhambra Way Mural" painted under the freeway in Martinez by the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District as a part of their ongoing Martinez Beautification Project. As always, maintaining our relationships with the community, local businesses, and city members is one of our top priorities to ensure that 1st Nor Cal remains a prominent community partner for the cities that we serve.
One of our most exciting achievements this year was being honored at the Best of Martinez Marina Awards with “Best Mortgage Services” and “Best Bank/Credit Union.” This acknowledgment of our dedication to our members and our community was humbling to say the least. We were so grateful to receive this recognition, which demonstrates our commitment to the credit union promise of "People Helping People." We have held ourselves to this standard for the past 75 years and will continue to uphold it as we move forward. The future of 1st Nor Cal is bright, and we can’t wait to see what comes next. Thank you for your support during our 75th anniversary year, and we look forward to serving you in 2025.
