Five Questions With: Paul Gentile

"One of the missions of credit unions is to do good work in the community and what you see in various states around the country is people take to the cause and joining in."

Paul Gentile is the president and CEO at the Credit Union Association of Rhode Island, Massachusetts Credit Union League and New Hampshire Credit Union League.
Rhode Island credit unions last month celebrated their annual Rhode Island Annual Golf tournament, benefiting Special Olympics Rhode Island, and was able to raise $85,000 for the charity.
Gentile talks with Providence Business News about the ongoing charity efforts among credit unions in the region.

PBN: Rode Island credit unions have been sponsoring Special Olympics since 1998, how is this golf tournament go toward that effort?
GENTILE:
Well, one of the missions of credit unions is to do good work in the community and what you see in various states around the country is people take to the cause and joining in. But we don’t just get money for these causes, we go to the events, we’re very close with the leadership of these organizations and a number of our other partnerships that we have. We don’t just write a check. When you have that type of engagement the passion grows year to year and that’s what has happened here. It’s grown and it’s grown strong.

PBN: How was the turnout this year?
GENTILE:
This year was a great day on the lakes. It was a competitive day, a very hot day, but credit unions and the vendor community that supports credit unions came out in big numbers. We appreciate those vendors coming out and supporting the cause as well. We had over 180 people and we raised a lot of money. One of the Special Olympics kids ran the putting contest and that really made it a special day. But I have to tell you I did not play that well.

PBN: Do Rhode Island credit unions do other charity events throughout the year?
GENTILE:
We also do a bowling charity event, and all of our credit unions participate. It’s a contest and it gets competitive, but at the end of the day it’s about raising money. That happens in the spring each year. A lot of the credit unions have their own credit union bowling shirts and some of them are elaborate. It’s for a good cause and some credit unions bring their whole senior staff, so it’s just a fun, fun day.

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PBN: Are all the events for the Special Olympics Rhode Island?
GENTILE:
The Special Olympics is our cause and we’ve been supporting them since 1998. The Rhode Island credit unions, at the association level, is having a big annual convention at Mohegan Sun and we’re also going to have a fundraisers there around that event in October. It’s a brand new event.

PBN: Do credit unions in other states put on similar events?
GENTILE:
The great thing about when we merged [the associations] is that we asked what had to stay local. And the answer was charitable causes and advocacy. Even though the three [associations] have become one, the local Rhode Island stuff, the charitable efforts that is, that’s all decided by our Rhode Island credit unions. They set the agenda and are not not being told what to do. In New Hampshire they do incredible work as well with the Make a Wish New Hampshire as their charitable organization. In Massachusetts, it’s the Coalition for the Homeless. So it’s there separate causes in three different states.

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