CHROME FCU Participates in National Kindness Campaign, ‘Best Day Ever’ 

Information and pictures provided by CHROME FCU

CHROME FCU, in partnership with Credit Union National Association (CUNA) endorsed-Kasasa, and Charlie Rocket’s Dream Machine Foundation, led Southwestern PA’s Best Day Ever, the local chapter of a collective of events that took place across the country in a nationwide kindness campaign. CHROME employees took to the streets along with community financial institutions from coast to coast, with the shared goal of reaching 100,000 acts of kindness in 1 day, which kicked off November 3.

• CHROME employees connected with over 300 community members from 9am-2pm on November 3 delivering different gestures of kindness.
• Kindness locations included Canonsburg Shop N’ Save, Washington Crown Center/Rural King, Downtown Washington Business District, Sheetz Wexford, and Washington PetSmart. Employees at businesses and organizations such as Blueprints, Kouzina Cafe, Keystone Hardware, Observer-Reporter, Primrose School Wexford, Vintage Grace Boutique, and Art on the Avenue were also included.
• 300 lucky pennies, $500 in $5 bills, Sarris Candies, carnations and more were handed out to unsuspecting community members.

When asking CEO & President of CHROME FCU, Robert Flanyak, about the event, he said, “Look, kindness is our thing! We try to spread Random Acts of Kindness, or as we call them RAKs, all year around. Every Friday in our team huddle, we all share what we call WOW moments and RAK stories that happened during the week at the branches, with members, and in the community. What made ‘Best Day Ever’ special was the chance to partner with other financial institutions, Kasasa, and Charlie Rocket, to do what we always do on a national scale. This was an opportunity for us to spread a little positivity in our little part of the world.”

CHROME employees wore capes as they went out in shifts to hand out special cards that had kindness quotes and either a penny for luck, and one to pass it on, or $5 to treat themselves for a personal act of kindness.

Director of Marketing at CHROME, Jasmine Hughes said, “It didn’t take long to see that our acts of kindness were already multiplying from the moment we passed on the kindness. At Shop N’ Save, people were passing their $5 on to the person behind them, and the pay it forward mentality took root. So our teams delivered kindness to over 300 people in our community, but that kindness was replicating right in front of us! It is no surprise that at the end of the weekend, the Kasasa Love tracker showed over 300,000 acts of kindness nationwide.”

Kasasa, which offers free reward checking accounts exclusively at community banks and credit unions, and Charlie Rocket, founder of the non-profit Dream Machine, designed the event as a way to demonstrate community financial institutions like CHROME Federal Credit Unions’ commitment to the people in their communities. Community financial institutions preserve the vital human connection that is increasingly disappearing in the world of finance. This event also highlighted the scale of the Kasasa network of community credit unions and banks, which combined, represents the fourth largest branch banking network in the country.

“Community Financial Institutions don’t have $2 billion marketing budgets like the Wells Fargo and Chases of the world,” said Gabe Krajicek, CEO of Kasasa. “However, they show up on an individual level, every day for the people in their communities. This event demonstrated how they are a vital part of their local economies and that one-on-one personal interactions matter. Pair this human connection with world class Kasasa products and you have something mega banks can’t touch. Together, we’re on a mission to change where Americans banks…back home.”