Nothing means more to us than our community. Offering the best financial services to our members is only one part of our story at Suncoast Credit Union. We’re also strong advocates of giving back to the communities where we live.

Our team members are active volunteers all year long, but we also have a special day each year dedicated to giving back. Pay It Forward Day is our chance to make a big difference in a single day by having our entire company head into the community to volunteer and complete service projects.

This year we had a phenomenal 781 employees, friends and family members volunteered for 2,660 hours in a single day to benefit more than 75 organizations! The value for this one day of giving is about $65,675.

Our employees get to choose their own volunteer organization and activity, so it’s always wonderful to see how many causes we impact and how many lives we touch. Check out some of the amazing achievements from Pay It Forward Day 2018:

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Made a Positive Difference in the Lives of Children at Jessie’s Place

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Team members from our Inverness Service Center spent their Pay It Forward Day at Jessie’s Place, a children’s advocacy center in Citrus County that creates a comforting and safe place for children who are victims of abuse or other crimes to tell their story and begin the healing process.

Our team raised almost $300 to purchase items that the organization desperately needed. They also volunteered their time to help make the space even brighter. In a single day, our volunteers assembled a teeter-totter for the children to enjoy, painted a large pavilion, mulched and revamped the front plant area, built a sand box, constructed a Frisbee disk golf “hole,” helped install a tetherball pole, helped assemble and install a basketball hoop and did other small projects for the facility.

Our team was truly touched and amazed at how the facility makes it easier and less traumatizing for abused children to get the help they need.

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Supported Our Troops

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Our team from Suncoast Investment Services is so dedicated to Support the Troops that they volunteered here for the third time and already have plans to do it again before the year is up!

Support the Troops is a nonprofit that ships care packages to troops who serve overseas. This organization is completely run by volunteers who donate, pack and send thousands of packages to 24 different international military bases every year.

Our STIS team raised money to fill 22 boxes, each containing 20 care packages. They then helped put those packages together and continued to pack 30 additional boxes of donated supplies.

Our troops frequently request toothpaste, razors, chewing gum, coffee and beef jerky. So if you’re looking to make a donation, those are great items to include.

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Helped Keep Pets and Pet Owners Together at Feed the Pack

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Suncoast is full of pet people. We love our furry friends, so it was no surprise when some team members for our Cape Coral Santa Barbara branch chose to volunteer at Feed the Pack, a pet food pantry.

Feed the Pack is an outreach program of Grace Church that that helps struggling families feed their pets. The goal is to keep people and pets together when families are facing hard times by relieving some of the financial burdens of pet ownership.  

For the past 8 years, Feed the Pack has bagged and given away approximately 1,500 pounds of dog food and 500 pounds of cat food per month at two venues. They also sponsor vaccination clinics and give vouchers to help with the costs of spaying and neutering pets. 

Our team members spent their day bagging food with a little help from a furry friend!

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Planted for a Cause at the Echo Community Garden

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Members of our mortgage operations team regularly volunteer with ECHO, an organization that provides residents of southeastern Hillsborough County with emergency food, clothing and access to life-stabilizing programs and resources. So for Pay It Forward Day, they were excited to help out at ECHO’s Seeds of Faith Community Garden.

The garden grows fresh produce that ECHO donates to local hunger relief agencies. They have harvested more than 14,000 pounds of produce since the garden was founded in 2011. Our team members helped in the garden with weeding, mulching, watering plants and planting onions.

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Donated Time, Food and Funds to Help the Homeless and Hungry at St. Matthew’s House

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The team from our Naples Horseshoe Service Center began preparing for Pay It Forward Day way before the event began. To help fund their volunteer efforts for St. Matthew’s House, they sold candy to raise money and even donated a portion of the proceeds from their branch’s car sale.

All of their hard work enable them to donate more nonperishable food to help the hungry and homeless. They then volunteered on Pay It Forward Day to help St. Matthews sort through donated merchandise for their thrift stores.

Thank you to everyone who helped make it such a special day. We can’t wait for next year! Check out more photos from Pay It Forward Day on social media with #SuncoastGivesBack.