MADISON, WI  – A team of 15 UW Credit Union employees formed a one-day strike force on Friday, April 26th to target and clean up the neighborhood surrounding James Madison Park, one of Madison’s most popular and heaviest used parks, located downtown on Lake Mendota, in celebration of Earth Day.

UW Credit Union collaborated with the City of Madison Parks Division to pick the James Madison Park area. At the suggestion of the Parks Division the credit union team collected trash off the streets immediately surrounding the 12-acre park – Carroll, Henry, Frances and Pickney Streets – where the roads end at Lake Mendota, off Langdon Street.

“Our team members used paid time off to give back through our Volunteer Time Off program,” commented Anne Norman, the credit union’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “Environmental sustainability efforts are one of the ways we support our local communities.” 

Earth Day has Wisconsin roots. U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson was one of two organizers of a nationwide day of environmental education and activism that they called Earth Day. On April 22, 1970, an estimated 22 million people nationwide attended festivities that day. Earth Day is now a global event each year, with more than 1 billion people in 192 countries now taking part in what is the largest civicfocused day of environmental action in the world. 

The UW Credit Union park cleanup was a kickoff for the Madison Parks Earth Day Challenge that took place the following day, Saturday April 27th. 

UW Credit Union is a growing, federally insured financial institution and a leading provider of a full range of financial services to University of Wisconsin communities. UW Credit Union's over 600 employees serve the financial needs of more than 250,000 members through world-class technology systems, and through a convenient network of 26 branch locations and over 100 ATMs. With assets totaling $2.8 billion, UW Credit Union is ranked nationally among the leading credit unions. Founded more than 85 years ago by members of the University of Wisconsin community, UW Credit Union continues to operate as a not-for-profit, memberowned financial cooperative with locations in the Madison, Milwaukee, Stevens Point, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Whitewater and La Crosse areas.