Selected for an outstanding commitment to cooperation and collaboration, Michigan Legacy Credit Union is proud to announce it has been awarded Xtend’s 2024 Randy Karnes Credit Union Collaboration of the Year Award. This prestigious award, created in 2022 by the Xtend board of directors to honor retiring CU*Answers CEO Randy Karnes, celebrates a credit union that demonstrates exceptional performance and a commitment to collaborative efforts within the financial cooperative sector.

Liz Winninger, CEO of Xtend, presented Carma Peters, president and CEO of Michigan Legacy Credit Union, with this year’s award at Xtend’s Leadership Conference on June 25. The event continues to honor the passion and legacy of Karnes by recognizing credit unions like Michigan Legacy Credit Union that embody the spirit of cooperation and collaboration—core principles of the financial cooperative movement. 

“We are thrilled and humbled to receive this prestigious award,” Peters said. “Knowing the legacy behind this award makes it an incredibly distinguished honor for our team. We firmly believe that the credit union industry is the best industry in the world, and this recognition underscores the importance of collaboration in achieving our mission.”

Winninger was pleased to present the award to Peters.

“Randy once said, ‘Do the work… Icons become icons with their day-to-day effort of simply showing up,’ and Carma and her team at Michigan Legacy have left a lasting impact on Xtend and more importantly, our employees,” Winninger remarked. “They do the work, but they do it with care for others, bringing others along with them, not in an effort to win or get awards, but because they really believe in collaboration, and the idea that what a credit union does on their own contributes to a larger community’s success.”

This award reinforces Michigan Legacy Credit Union’s position as a leader in fostering cooperative values and delivering outstanding financial services to its members. Michigan Legacy Credit Union serves its members through five physical locations in Wyandotte, Flat Rock, Pontiac, Highland, and Warren, as well as a virtual video branch.