With 1,564 local members Newrizons Federal Credit Union has been meeting members where they are on the road to financial success for 60 years. This local to Hoquiam credit union was founded in June 1965 by 10 employees of the Lamb Grays Harbor Company and evolved from Lamb Grays Harbor Credit Union to Newrizons in 2001, expanding and encompassing all residents of the Grays Harbor area.

Newrizons recently held a member event day with door prizes and special occasion cake for all in attendance. The staff was alive with excitement and pride at what this small and locally grown credit union has accomplished in its 60 years of existence.

The Lamb company believed in the empowerment of its employees and subsidized the fledgling credit union with its very own office close to the personnel office. Until then the accounting department of the Lamb company had been inundated with advance requests. Now, the employees could take care of themselves with the creation of their credit union family.

Newrizons Federal Credit Union is still on the old Lamb property today. David Lamb, seeing the value a credit union had to offer its community, donated the property.

Following a strike, the then-president of the machinist union, who was also a contractor, helped instigate the building of the independent space. During this strike the workers were unable to access the office of the credit union housed in the company they were striking against. Dedicated (and future CEO) Terry Fultz would make the transactions happen and deliver the money by hand to the members outside of the picket line. This is when they knew they needed an independent building — a big leap from the subsidized office beginnings. The following year in 1990 the new 1,862-square-foot space was built.

From the briefcase beginnings through paper ledgers and early computerization of the administration in 1980, reminiscent of the IBM punchcards, the credit union started to give small loans to its members. ATT School of Business, Seattle graduate Terry Fultz recalled her interview for then-CEO Alice Schmid’s assistant.

“I sat at a desk opposite her, the typewriter was on my left, I was typing and turned to talk, in doing so knocked the coffee she had so kindly brought for me, across all the paperwork on both desks,” Fultz said. It wasn’t the perfect interview for this bank-trained applicant, but she got the job.

The love of the credit union movement itself ran deep amongst the founders, legacy employees and members alike as new financial success was brought to Hoquiam locals. That history prevails today. The Hoquiam branch manager Mariah Parker stated how proud she is to be “a CDFI Community Development Financial Institution, which allows us to serve the underserved and most vulnerable amongst us, from credit counseling to financial literacy.”

Talking of financial literacy, since 1990 Newrizons Federal Credit Union has been offering high school interns the opportunity to work a paid internship while they complete their high school education, something the graduates enjoy and prosper from.

Today’s Newrizons is a bilingual community-centered credit union, reaching out to a diverse customer base with its varied needs. Current CEO Will Hall said, “Here at Newrizons we are grounded in the credit union philosophy of ‘people helping people’ and seek to improve our member’s lives no matter their situation, financial condition or background. This is the best kind of work to do and I am happy to be here to be a part of it.”

Hoquiam has birthed and raised a gem, the only hometown credit union with its headquarters in Hoquiam and serving the most needed purpose for those who traditionally don’t find banks to be receptive. When Terry Fultz took over from Alice Schmid she had already gone through Alice’s training on the difference between credit unions and the banks, lovingly remembered for saying, “it took me a while to take the bank out of Terry.”

Today Newrizons offers our community emergency loans, credit builder loans, first time auto loans along with traditional auto loans, no credit personal loans and even offer some of these to those who have recently been employed for as little as six months.

Today’s modern automated cash handling system is affectionately referred to as Alice, a nod to the beginnings of this credit union, which has grown to be there for all who reside in Grays Harbor.