Where did you move to Scarborough from?
I was in Virginia immediately before Scarborough, but I grew up in California.
Why Scarborough?
When I got the job, I asked people I knew in the Maine Credit Union League how they’d rank local towns and Scarborough was at the top of the list. My wife and I loved the access to the coast and the schools. We saw a beautiful new home off Pine Point Road and fell in love with it.
What’s your favorite thing to do in Scarborough?
Mountain bike – I go every day unless it’s raining. I do a 16-mile loop from my house along the Eastern Trail and Route 1. My journey to fitness has really taken off since coming here. I have Type II diabetes and I’ve been able to get myself off insulin by staying fit.
What to you represents the best of Scarborough?
Nature, the outdoors, and people who care about their community. Where we were in Virginia, people get home late after commuting from DC and there just isn’t a sense of community. Here there is.
I’ve been fortunate to join the board of Scarborough Land Trust – I’d never even heard of a land trust before moving here. I love the community’s goals for conserving land and preserving it for the future.
How did you end up at Evergreen?
I’ve been in credit unions my whole career. I started as a teller and have had many different positions, from loan officer to marketing.
Why did Evergreen open a branch in Scarborough?
We were looking to open a new location in or near York County on a busy street. We saw that Dunstan was underserved in terms of financial institutions. Anyone who lives here has to go to Oak Hill to do their banking, and yet Dunstan and Saco are growing.
What is your greatest hope for Scarborough?
I hope we can continue to be a place where neighbors talk to neighbors, and people work through issues together. Right now, we have aging schools that need to be replaced and aging households that don’t want to pay more taxes. We can work together to move our community forward. I’d also like some mountain-bike trails.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job?
Working with others at Evergreen to build the institution we want. It’s my life and passion. We’re a very human-centric organization.
When I first came to Evergreen, I met with all 52 employees within the first 30 days. (Now we have more than twice that many.) I still have “Pastries with the President” for new hires. It’s important to me that people feel cared for and stay with our organization. We have very low turnover and what turnover we do have is often people moving up into new, higher positions.
We love supporting our communities however we can. One employee does amazing drone work and uses that skill to help members in really unique ways. He has helped land trusts take photos and an animal rescue league search for a lost dog. Another Evergreen employee helped a non-profit with H.R. training focused on personality types. There are so many little stories like this.
Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives so we don’t have as large a budget as other financial institutions, but we love to support our community partners however we can, even if that’s just giving them a boost on social media.
It’s also rewarding to be able to better people’s financial lives. We have a new mission statement that mentions financial freedom, which looks different for everybody. For one person it may be paying off a student loan. For someone else on a fixed income, it could be creating income from assets.
What’s something no one in town knows about you?
When I was a teller in Long Beach, California, I went through two robberies. I was behind a counter and the robber put a gun to my chest. Another time, I was in an office and was able to call 911. It happens all the time out there. It’s the Wild West out in Los Angeles.
Why did you invite Chelsey Cargen to manage Evergreen’s new branch in Scarborough?
Chelsey is an outstanding manager. She brings knowledge, passion, empathy, and compassion for people. She’s trustworthy. Her passion for the job comes through and that spreads to everyone on the team here.
