BILLINGS — This holiday season, Valley Credit Union wanted to give back and did so by gifting five of their deserving members by paying off their loans.
“It is such a blessing. I mean, it really is,” said one of the recipients, Loretta Beadling. “This is going to be a tremendous help, it really is. And I'm very grateful to Valley.”
Beadling, a single mom with two kids and a grandchild at home, is just trying to stay afloat.
“My husband's passed away, and I just need the two jobs to make all my ends meet,” Beadling said. “Everything I make now goes to the bills we owe.”
Beadling is looking forward to putting the money to repairing her home, instead of making monthly payments on her car.
“It was $274.12 a month for like six more years,” Beadling said. "To think I could put that on the side and maybe get some repairs done in the house and things that I need to do.”
Another member selected, Mike Otto, said this gift takes away the stress of having to set aside money every month to pay his loan.
“The loan, the credit cards, the paying rent on time, the electricity, the gas,” Otto said. “I don't have to worry about repo or if I'm gonna make enough for this month, because now I know I'm gonna make it.”
Otto had combined his home and auto loan with Valley, so over $20,000 dollars was paid off by the credit union.
“(My fiance and I) actually didn't have the money for a wedding and this is gonna help us out. That's even the bigger part. I mean, there's just so many things that we've been saving up for,” Otto said.
The five members were nominated by Valley employees and were then invited to a lunch at valley. None of them had any idea they would be walked into a room with five gift boxes on a table. When they opened the gifts and read, "Congratulations! Valley Credit Union is paying off your loan!" there wasn't a dry eye in the room.
"Seeing those reactions and helping those people this time of year and giving them a leg up at Christmas time," said Brandon Scala, the Senior Vice President of Community Engagement at Valley Credit Union. "It's super heartwarming that our credit union is capable of doing those kinds of things for people and that we have a CEO that is willing to give back as much as we do."
Scala said the five members were also given additional funds to pay for the taxes.
"We don't want to we want to give you a gift but then we don't want to have to have you turn around pay taxes on that gift. So we we helped them out the best we could," Scala said. "This is the very first time And hopefully to continue going forward in the future. What does that look like? I'm not sure yet."
