Teenage Mutant Ninja Credit Unions
St. Mary’s Credit Union, which serves anyone who lives or works in Middlesex and Worcester counties, has created a contest for high school art and video production clubs to create an animated video to serve as a template for the institution’s upcoming promotional efforts.
The contest is called the "4Reel Video Project," which will provide $1,500 to the winner’s school, and $1,000 to all other participants. The goal is to create a 90-second animated video, chronicling how credit unions are viewed by young people.
For the record, The Teller thinks that’s a fabulous deal: just by entering a video, a school receives $1,000. St. Mary’s said schools are free to spend the money however it likes, although the credit union hopes some animation creation software or equipment might be purchased.
"St. Mary’s is always looking for new ways to engage and educate the community," said Jack Caulfield, president and CEO of St. Mary’s Credit Union. "We see this contest as a great opportunity to connect with the local high schools and, having met with the media club and class advisors, we’re sure students will be challenged by this practical, experiential learning assignment."
To assist schools that don’t already have such software, the credit union has partnered with an animation company from Portsmouth, N.H. called Hatchling Studios.
The Teller learned its lesson with Eastern Bank’s football team commercial contest: we’re not a high school. So even though The Teller would clearly win this one, instead we’ll offer up a few animation ideas for the contestants that, you know, actually qualify.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Credit Unions: Four credit unions help local residents and workers save money by foiling economic crimes with ninja weapons, cool slogans, and low fees. Instead of cookies in the lobby, they have jellybean and peanut butter pizza.
Credit Union Transformers: Credit unions that transform members’ money into even more money, all while innocuously appearing as buildings. Their leader? Optimus Prime Rate.
Rocky J. Economy and Bullmarket: Small and agile and large and strong credit unions protect their members’ investments and deposits through good times and bad, even when evil foreign spies and cyber-thieves (perhaps named Boris and Natasha) try to use elaborate schemes to deplete their balances.
SpongeCredit Square Unions: OK, we’re really stretching with that one. But you get the idea.
Windswept Property
The Teller loves to report celebrities buying and selling property in the Bay State. It pleases our most voyeuristic tendencies, and we get to show of the fancy and far-reaching capabilities of our esteemed owner’s data. (All hail The Warren Group!)
We’ve had singers, athletes, authors and, thanks to Jeff Jagodzinski, coaches. This week, The Teller would like to tip our cap to a local development celebrity, Gerald W. Blakeley Jr. Blakeley Jr. was the president of Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, which built much of downtown Boston’s skyline over the last several decades, including 60 State St., One Boston Place, 100 Summer St., and 28 State St.
Well, that’s a somewhat successful resume, and clearly Mr. Blakeley Jr. was well rewarded for his work. He purchased a 4.62 acre property in Osterville, on romantically-named Windswept Way, for $6.8 million.
Blakeley Jr. put up a pretty decent down payment, too: a cool $5.8 million, with a $1 million mortgage from Bank of America. We guess he just squeaked in past the bank’s underwriting standards.
The Googler showed us the property; it’s a 8,252-square-foot house, with a lot of trees, next to a golf course on one side, and Cotuit Bay on the other. It looks like a heck of a place to retire, too – essentially a giant adult playground, but without the dodge ball.
Congratulations, Mr. Blakeley Jr. It seems like you’ve earned it.
