Martha Miller, left, served as CEO of Choice Federal Credit Union and became a leader in NC’s credit union movement.

In the late 1970s, when Martha Miller was asked to manage a credit union for Burlington Industries employees, she said, “What’s a credit union?” The Greensboro, North Carolina resident went on to serve as CEO of Choice Federal Credit Union (originally Burlington Employees Federal CU), and ultimately became a leader in NC’s credit union movement.

We are telling this story because it is part of the history of Choice Community Credit Union, which joined the Self-Help family in 2010. We have captured Choice’s history in a short documentary: “Choice Community Credit Union: A Tight-Knit Family.”

This video features interviews from Martha Miller, Park Davidson (BI executive and Choice board member), Carol Lyles (BI employee and credit union member) and credit union staffers Lavern Coley and Susan Padgett. They all echo the same theme: the credit union has always been like a tight-knit family.

The Choice Community video includes archival photos of BI textile workers, such as this one, provided courtesy of the University of North Carolina collection.

This is the seventh video in Self-Help’s series, “Stories from our Vault,” in which are preserving the histories of the remarkable credit unions that have joined us in recent years. So far, these videos reflect the amazing diversity of our family, from a credit union started by African-American farmers in eastern North Carolina to a Chicago bank that has served immigrant communities since 18xx. We invite you to watch them all!