Later this year Peninsula Credit Union will mark its 90th year, but it’s also celebrating the 20th year of its Port Townsend branch, which was acquired in a merger with Olympic Community Federal Credit Union at the end of 2005.

Olympic Community Federal Credit Union boasted 700 members and $2.3 million in assets just prior to merging with PCU, whose chain as a whole now boasts a total of 21,102 members and $300 million in assets,

said Billy Thomas, director of marketing for Peninsula Credit Union.

Until last year, the Port Townsend branch boasted a single branch manager during its time with Peninsula Credit Union. That was Diana “Di” Kenyon, who retired in 2024 after 20 years with PCU. Polleen Johnson, who was assistant branch manager, now heads the branch. Johnson has worked for PCU for 17 years.

Kenyon was hired by Olympic Community Federal Credit Union shortly before the merger. Her retirement reduced the Port Townsend branch of Peninsula Credit Union from four to three employees, at least until another employee can be hired.

Johnson recalls when the Port Townsend branch’s total footprint, at its original location at 2011 Water Street, was barely bigger than her current office at 1250 W. Sims Way, where the branch moved a couple of years after the merger.

That move, across from the QFC, happened in March of the year Johnson was hired. “The presence of those other stores has certainly helped us grow over the years.”

As of Jan. 1, 2025, the Port Townsend branch has 3,015 members, and of the 332 net new members that Peninsula Credit Union grew in 2024, the Port Townsend branch had 87 of them, she said.

“That’s 26% of Peninsula Credit Union’s total growth,” Johnson continued. “I am really happy with the work we are doing here in Port Townsend.”

Thomas deemed the Port Townsend branch’s employees to be a “small but mighty crew,” noting the branch’s “immediate growth in assets” in 2006, after the merger.

Thomas noted the number of nonprofits and community-centric events the branch had supported in Jefferson County throughout the years, pointing to one-time donation of $1,000 to the Port Townsend Public Library Foundation in 2014, as well as the $2,750 the branch contributed to the Relay for Life between 2011 and 2022.

“And we’ve pitched in $2,500 to the Port Townsend Farmers’ Market since 2018,” Thomas said. “We’re still supporting this one.”

Although the Port Townsend branch’s year-to-year growth was smaller in 2024 than in 2023, Johnson attributed that to the Fed lowering its rates. But both she and Thomas recalled a notable individual success story from 2024, that a new member of Peninsula Credit Union wrote about in a letter to CEO Jim Morrell.

Before the man had even joined Peninsula Credit Union, he went to Kade Woolf, a member relationship consultant with the Port Townsend branch, about his car loan.

After purchasing a vehicle from a dealership, he reviewed the paperwork he’d signed, and realized his quoted interest rate of about 8% actually amounted to 9.5%.

In November, the man stopped by the Port Townsend branch and met Woolf, who submitted an application to refinance the automobile loan.

“He was approved with a fabulous interest rate of 7.29% for a term of 60 months, lowered from 84 months on the prior loan, which also lowered the monthly payment by almost $100, and saved him from the higher interest,” Thomas said.

“Plus, he accepted a VISA credit card offer, helping build his credit responsibly with a local institution.”

The man wrote, “Kade was both personable and professional, and knows his business, making everything so easy for me.”