The core of the Central Massachusetts economy runs through small businesses, and those businesses need a place to get capital and loans. One of the most important institutions in the area providing the loans that small businesses need to succeed is St. Mary’s Credit Union, and providing those intermediary loans is something Larissa Thurston and her team pride themselves on.
That commitment has been noticed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, which in 2022 named St. Mary’s Credit Union Lender of the Year in Massachusetts for the 8th year in a row.
Additionally, the credit union is one of four MetroWest financial institutions partnered with the Marlborough Economic Development Corp. to provide gap financing for startups and growing small businesses in the city. Thurston is responsible for more than 53,000 members and $990 million in assets. The credit union donated more than $200,000 to local nonprofits, and its team volunteered more than 575 hours to help the community, which goes back to the core of its mission when it was founded 110 years ago as a way to provide loans for people who couldn’t afford the high price of coal to heat their homes, which banks would not do.
How should professionals best use the power they wield? “It’s important to be present and use your influence to give back to your community, and encourage others to do the same. Professionals have an opportunity to create connections that can have a lasting, meaningful, and positive impact not only on people and organizations, but also in the community.”
Almost aloha: As a joke, Thurston and a group of her friends in fifth grade lied at a local fair and said they were 18 to enter a drawing to win an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii. To her surprise, they drew Thurston’s name, called her on stage, and she embarrassingly had to admit to the crowd she was not old enough. They drew another name. Hawaii is still on her bucket list.
