Credit union leaders and business solutions partners collaborated to raise $1.1 million for 11 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals located in the region served by GoWest Credit Union Association at the Credit Unions for Kids auction Oct. 26. The event is a legacy tradition during the association’s annual MAXX Convention, which was held in Spokane this week. Credit Unions for Kids, now the national Credit Union Movement’s “charity of choice,” was founded in the GoWest region in 1986. 

The high-energy “Disco Ball” theme saw donors busting out their best moves for the kids, bidding competitively as electric cars were auctioned off for the CMN hospitals – some of them bidding for as much as $50,000, and several car bids were matched. Luxury travel packages and opportunities to give cash amounts ranging from $25 to $25,000 also resulted in aggressive bid-paddle-raising to reach the $1.1 million total. 

“Credit unions in the GoWest region do a lot for CMN hospitals year around, but the annual auction during MAXX is when they collaborate to really raise the roof,” said GoWest President/CEO Troy Stang. “Every year they’re determined to shatter fundraising records, so the bar is set high for 2023.”

Jack and Liam Kelsey, four-and-a-half-year-old twins, served as Miracle Children for the Disco Ball auction. They were born prematurely in 2017 at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital in Spokane. After 78-days of specialized treatment in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the boys came home healthy, and today are thriving.

The boys’ parents, Mike and Corrina Kelsey told their story at the auction and shared the joyful news that Jack and Liam now have a healthy baby brother.

The Kelsey family returned to the MAXX mainstage Thursday to help reveal the fundraising total.

They were joined by GoWest Board Chair Jeff Adams, President and CEO of Spokanebased Horizon Credit Union, and GoWest Board Vice Chair Todd Marksberry, President and CEO of Canvas Credit Union in Lone Tree, CO.

“You folks outdid yourselves last night, and I am in awe,” Marksberry said. 

Adams added, “I am proud. Proud to be part of the Credit Union Movement, and proud of your generosity. Your support makes miracles happen."