American Cancer Society:

Since the year 2008, 5Point Credit Union has donated over $1.8 million to the American Cancer Society, and we're not stopping there! There are numerous ways 5Point Credit Union directly supports the American Cancer Society; this can be seen by participating in local Relay for Life events, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer events, donating bimonthly through our Jeans for a Cure program, and our loan promotion participation. We have held numerous titles during our time supporting the American Cancer Society, such as the Top Performing Team at our Relay for Life local event starting in the year 2014, the Number One Team in the Nation for the year 2016, and the Number Four Team in the Nation for the year 2022.

5Point Credit Union Hope to Cure Grant

Part of our 2017 American Cancer Society contribution went to the funding of a research grant. Here's a summary of the research being done with the 5Point Credit Union Hope to Cure Grant:

"In the same way the immune system fights infections, it is able to recognize and attack cancer.  Tumors, unfortunately find ways of preventing immune cell attack and one way is by expressing the protein, PD-L1, a 'stop sign' for immune cells.  PD-L1 does this by binding to another protein on immune cells, called PD-1, which causes the immune cell to get tired, and die. One way to treat cancer is to prevent PD-L1 from binding PD-1 and there have recently been drugs approved by the FDA to do so.  Unfortunately, these drugs have one major unwanted side effect called autoimmunity, where your immune system attacks, normal healthy tissue.  As a result, we need to find drugs that promote tumor attack while minimizing off-target effects and autoimmunity. 

Our lab is interested in the way genes, the starting material for proteins, are regulated.  One area of PD-L1 research that is not very well-investigated are the genes that regulate it.  Therefore, the goal of this proposal is to identify which genes cause PD-L1 to be expressed on cancer.  By doing so, we could find drugs to inhibit these genes, and therefore reduce PD-L1, allowing for the immune system to attack tumors but not necessarily normal tissue.  The experiments here will identify new ways to treat cancer by 're-teaching' the immune system to attack tumors and can potentially revolutionize cancer treatment regimens."

-Dr. Tessa Simone

C.A.R.E. (Community Action For Responsible Employees) Fund:

Established in 2004, the 5Point C.A.R.E. Fund has donated $145,753 in support of local charities. Through voluntary payroll donations and aluminum can recycling efforts, 5Point employees come together throughout the year to raise funds for organizations making a difference in our communities. All employee contributions are matched by 5Point Credit Union and presented to each organization during a check presentation hosted by 5Point. See all C.A.R.E. Fund donations below.