As many of us know, San Francisco summers are often colder than our winters. So here we are with summer upon us, yet the Bay Area’s microclimates show a wide range of temperatures – whether you are wearing shorts and t-shirts in San Rafael and San Carlos or bundling up in fleece jackets South of Market and in the Sunset District, I hope many of you are enjoying the longer days, summer barbecues and perhaps some long-awaited vacation time with family and friends.

I had the pleasure and privilege of recently attending and serving as honorary committee member for the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation’s Igniting Hope gala where money was raised to help those in our firefighter community who are fighting cancer. Retired SF Giant Hunter Pence gave keynote remarks about finding life’s purpose, and SF Fire Credit Union was a corporate sponsor of the event. You can learn more about this inspiring organization and its leader, Tony Stefani, in the cover story of this issue of the Siren.

As we always have, SF Fire continues to support the San Francisco Firefighter Recruit Training Academy classes. This year, we will support six Academy classes by funding their class accounts, conducting financial education lunches and sponsoring graduation ceremonies. We’re also thrilled to announce we’ve implemented a program where we are onsite at the Academy, making it convenient for new recruits to join the credit union. Last year, we supported 160 recruits who graduated from the training program, and we gave back over $120,000 to fire departments in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties.

I’m excited to report that SF Fire was recently recognized by SFGATE as the Bay Area’s Top Credit Union! This is SFGATE’s inaugural Best of Bay Area awards – there were more than 100,000 nominations, and 140,000 votes cast across 119 different categories. Thanks to all of you who nominated and voted for us. We hope to spread the word about all the ways we are here to help our local community achieve their financial goals.

We recently held our semi-annual Shred Day where we provide members with a secure and convenient way to dispose of sensitive documents. The event was a huge success, with over 259 cars participating and a total of 16,000 pounds of shredded documents that will be recycled, saving:

• • 136 trees from being cut down
  • 56,000 gallons of water from being wasted
  • 8,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions from being released

Thanks for your continued feedback and support, and please be sure to tell your friends and family about us!

Kathy Duvall

President and CEO

Check out Kathy's message, and more in our July Siren Newsletter.