South Carolina Credit Unions - Discover Our Culture

27th Annual Lowcountry Oyster Festival

Feb 2, 2010 | Comment(s) 0

The sun sets on a sea of plastic cups, halved oyster shells, and empty buckets that litter the tree-lined field behind Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston, SC. It’s all that remains from 65,000 pounds of oysters and the 9,000 people that kicked off the 27^th Annual Oyster Festival seven hours earlier. As the CU Crew, which for today consisted of myself (Lindsey) and new addition Jonathan Bouknight, exhaustively dismantle our gear, I looked upon the acres of plastic remains, almost overtaken by the pungent aroma of shucked oysters, yet can only do one thing – smile.

Smile because we were able to speak to over 200 people one-on-one throughout the day.Smile because we dispersed box after box of Itpays2CU freebies, plastering the pro-credit union logo in every direction.Smile because eighty-five percent of the day’s interactions took place with our target population, young people. Smile because of the couple of hundred Itpays2CU bumper magnets that will now be traveling advertisements for credit unions as they make their way around the city. Smile because this was one of the most successful events in the history of the ItPays2CU campaign.

Yes, I said one of the most successful events in our effort’s history! In addition to the mountain of oysters, apparently the combination of live music, fare from the area’s top restaurants, an oyster shucking contest (which is not to be confused with the oyster eating contest to come later), horse rides and a big bounce for the kiddies is the correct formula for attracting Charlestonians – and thousands of them. I may have sat down twice in eleven hours. And although it sounds crazy, I didn’t mind it one bit. I didn’t mind because I recognized the difference that we were making, grateful for the opportunity to distribute our publications to so many. I often explained the benefits of credit union membership to several groups of people at once, with my only fear being that someone would walk away because I was already engaged with another group! This is what the campaign was created to do; and these are the type of events at which we do it best. Check out the video!

As a team, we’re constantly on the lookout for more events of this type and caliber, ideally with multiple thousand in attendance.Please pass along the word if you’re aware of any. See you on you on the road!

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