There were so many reasons to say “Thank you!” Your commitment to helping students and improving the quality of life in Washington deserved our heartfelt appreciation. So did your choice to belong to School Employees Credit Union. Because of you, we’ve become the largest financial institution in Washington exclusively devoted to school employees and their families.
 

It was a year of celebration and prize drawings:

• every week, we drew five winners who each received $75, and
• at the end of the year, we drew one grand prize winner who received $7,500!

Congratulations to the final week's winners! 

• Dianne M. of Burlington, WA 
• Dawn C. of Tacoma, WA  
• Lloyd B. of Black Diamond, WA  
• Kevin W. of Seattle, WA 
• Eric M. of Bellevue, WA 

Congratulations to the Grand Prize winner of $7,500! 

• Paulina S. of Auburn, WA

     Complete list of winners 

Congratulations again to all our winners and to our entire membership for helping us celebrate 75 Years of Excellence!

Members' Credit Union Stories

Then & Now: What was it like to live in 1936?

When Robert J. Handy, a Seattle high school math and journalism teacher, started a credit union for his fellow teachers, the world was a different place. The Washington Legislature had legalized the concept of member-owned credit unions only three years earlier. The Great Depression lingered on with unemployment at 16.9% and, with money in short supply, a little went a long way:  

	1936	2011
Average annual wage:	$1,713	$40,711
Average price of a new home:	$3,925	$232,880
Cost of a gallon of gas:	10 cents	$3.20
Cost of a loaf of bread:	8 cents	$2.49
Cost of a new car:	$665	$28,400

 
Figures courtesy of thepeoplehistory.com

Many homes in the rural United States lacked electricity, but that began to change in 1936 with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Act. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was the same year Boulder Dam (today's Hoover Dam) was completed and began generating hydroelectricity.

Eager to find escape from the tedium of hard times, America was wowed by Jesse Owen's four gold-medal wins at the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Readers were captivated by the newly published novel Gone with the Wind. And moviegoers were equally enthralled by The Alamo on the big screen.

1936 saw the birth of celebrities including Senator John McCain; actors Robert Redford, Alan Alda, Burt Reynolds, and Mary Tyler Moore; and musicians Kris Kristofferson and Charlie Daniels.

The credit union takes shape

In Seattle, Robert J. Handy was thinking big but starting small with his new-fangled credit union. He first set up shop at a small desk in the Education Department at the Seattle Public Library. To get the word out, Mr. Handy typed the first Bulletin on a mimeograph master, ran off copies, and distributed them via principals' boxes at the Central Office,

Despite what must have seemed like long odds, the credit union met milestone after milestone: extending membership statewide in 1949; reaching $1 million in assets by 1952; and ranking as the state's second-largest credit union by 1960.  

Today, members trust us with more than $700 million in assets. Although a lot has changed since 1936, one thing remains the same: You're the reason we're here, and we're honored to serve you.