Grand ReOpening Day at Alcatel-Lucent branch

Today we're celebrating the Grand Re-Opening of our branch in the Indian Hill building at Lucent. We made some changes to the interior, so we thought it was a good excuse to serve punch and cookies to our friends at Alcatel-Lucent! After all, our relationship with Alcatel-Lucent goes way back to our founding days at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works Plant in Cicero. The Hawthorne Works plant manufactured telephones and telephone wires and a group of Western Electric employees started the credit union in 1935 by pooling their money to save with each other and make small loans to each other during the Great Depression.


To make a long story short...years later after the plant closed, a portion of the business was sold to another phone company and it moved out to Naperville. Hawthorne Credit Union moved with it.

Recession: Glass half empty, or half full?

Last night President Obama said this was "not your run-of-the-mill recession." What is a run-of-the-mill recession? Fortunately we haven't experienced that many in order to know what a "run-of-the-mill" recession is like. I must say it's frightening that this period of time has been compared to the Great Depression...or at least I keep hearing it's "the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression". That's true.

You might not know that credit unions, including Hawthorne Credit Union, were born during the Great Depression when average working class consumers had no access to loans or financial services of any kind. They pooled their money into a fund, depositing as little as 25 cents a paycheck, so that they could make small loans to help each other through the tough times. People helping people. Hawthorne Credit Union was started by a group of employees at Western Electric's Hawthorne Works Plant in Cicero in 1935. So it stands to reason that we are poised to help our members through this economic crisis too. We're still making loans, we're still strong. We will sit down with you and help you sort through your situation, consolidate debt to reduce your monthly expenses. Get you on a savings plan. Consult with our expert partners at the BALANCE Financial Fitness Program.

In addition to credit unions being born from economic hardship, check out this article from CNN about 6 companies born out of economic downturn.

It might be rough for a while, but we'll come out of it as a stronger nation. Who knows what innovation will be born? So while we ride out the tough times, let's remember the glass is also half full.