The ride is complete. Our journey is just beginning.

Some journeys end when the final mile is complete. The Choose the Bear® ride is not one of them.

We invite you to listen (and watch on Spotify or Apple Podcasts) to this special release of the closing speech for the Choose the Bear® ride conclusion and the journey ahead.

Transcript

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This week, our Orsa Credit Union team celebrated the end of a 1400-mile journey that marks the starting line of so much more. Laura Killingbeck, adventurer, dreamer, and passionate advocate, biked across the great state of Michigan. Along the way, she met trees, bugs, bears, and importantly, stopped to connect with organizations that support those impacted by domestic and sexual violence. We celebrated the ride's end at the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence's annual conference. The remarks I'm about to share were also shared that evening. I repeat them here because we are just getting started. At Orsa, we are a best friend to women and those who love them. Our Choose the Bear tour was the starting line for all the dreams that we have for women and those who love them. We are building systemic options for Michiganders to join us in that commitment. So, whether as a member tapping your card in your daily spending and rounding up in support of organizations that support women through our Grow and Give program, or through a commitment to our Choose the Bear Fund through our Orsa Foundation, or simply by choosing Orsa and sharing that with someone you care about. Let's use the momentum of Laura's bike ride to shape a future for our daughters and our daughters' daughters. Let's each act today. Here are Tuesday evening's remarks. Good evening, everyone, and welcome. The landscape of your home often camouflages itself from you. When I left Michigan for adventures that would take me to Illinois, Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin, and Colorado, Michigan's shine had faded like a favorite jean jacket I'd stopped seeing. Still there, still loved, just invisible. The contours of her roads, hills, lakes, and cities formed around me with a comfort I relied on without noticing. Taking this landscape for granted did not come naturally. My tour guides to the Mitten State included my grandmothers, Edith and Isabel, and my mom and dad, Liz and Floyd Webb, who have always loved Michigan with abandon. In June 2022, when I had the opportunity to return to my home state to lead Orsa Credit Union, the cliches surrounding a homecoming played in my head. Yet what I felt was not cliche at all. The muggy summer air lifted my naturally curly hair. The extra hours of sunlight and warmth nudged people to outdoor meals, an extra round of golf, and long walks around neighborhoods. As I drove from our southern headquarters to our northern region, the green grass and leaves contrasted with the tans and browns of the fields. In the early morning, the lakes were speckled with one or two fishermen. In the late afternoon and into the evening, waterskiers and jet skiers cruised over lakes and buzzed until the sun finally said goodnight. Perhaps that is why Laura Killingbeck's choose the bear ride across Michigan resonates so deeply with me. Like my grandparents, she is paying attention. Like my parents, she is moving through this landscape with curiosity and purpose. And she is helping us see something far less visible than lakes, woods, and rolling farmland. While many may consider invisibility an incredible superpower only reserved for superhero movies, we dance with it daily. Whether it's not seeing the vibrancy of home or the effort a loved one puts in that disappears in routine, so much can go unnoticed when our lives are already full. What must not remain invisible any longer is the suffering of women through economic abuse. Laura's independent journey invites us to see women and their experiences just as coming home allowed me to see Michigan through conversations with leaders from places like On the Wings of Angels, River House, and the Women's Resource Center of Northern Michigan. Laura's ride and conversations helped sharpen our vision. Over the last many weeks, we began noticing what has often remained hidden. And as we did, we moved closer to a future where economic abuse is no longer accepted or ignored. Each mile Laura rode over the last few weeks reminded us of the power of women reclaiming independence, facing the joyful downhill moments of life with glee, and accelerating into the tougher uphill pushes with determination and self-assurance. And as I look around this room tonight, I'm struck by how many different people and organizations are represented here working so hard to fight that invisibility and ensure a brighter future when economic abuse no longer holds the power it does today. Advocates, survivors, community organizations, credit unions, businesses, volunteers, board members, friends, loved ones, team members, and neighbors from communities across Michigan. Thank you for being here. We gather tonight to celebrate a remarkable journey and shine a light that erases invisibility. Even more importantly, to celebrate what that journey made possible. Over the last eight weeks, Laura Killingbeck traveled more than a thousand miles across Michigan, and with every turn of her wheels, more stories could be seen. Stories from survivors, stories from advocates, stories from communities that have been doing this work long before any of us gathered here tonight. Stories of our fine state. She reminded us that invisibility falls away when we listen and act. At Orsa, our purpose is to create joy and ignite Michigander's impossible dreams. We often think of those dreams as the brighter moments in our lives, like buying a first home, opening a business, or saving for retirement. Those dreams are also about navigating the darker moments too, and Laura's journey reminds us that sometimes an impossible dream begins with something much more fundamental. It's having the freedom to leave. Thank you, Gretchen. It's a credit union building a program called Grow and Give that ensures that everyday Michiganders can carry this choose the bear movement forward simply by tapping their beautifully designed debit card, knowing that each tap nudges us toward destroying the invisibility of economic abuse. Orsa's impossible dream is to be a best friend to women and those who love them. We can picture a future when economic abuse is invisible not because it's hidden and weaponized through shame and shadows. It is invisible because it no longer exists. This ride demonstrates that being a best friend to women and those who love them is a bold ambition and action all of us can take daily. And we are just getting started. Thank you. This journey may have introduced many of us to your work. You've been carrying it long before this tour began. We are deeply grateful. And to Laura, thank you for helping us see Michigan the way my epic family always has. Thank you for introducing us to advocates and survivors. Thank you for reminding us that partnership begins with listening. And thank you for proving that one person's courage can inspire change that some might call impossible. Not Orsa, not Laura, not anyone in this realm. Together we will shape a world where women create the future they desire. Let this celebration inspire you to act and walk with Orsa into that future that our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and friends deserve. Tonight, let's not only celebrate how far Laura rode, let's celebrate the visibility Laura created. And importantly, let's celebrate what each of you does next. Huzzah to Laura. Huzzah to our Orsa team and board for your vision and drive to make things happen. Huzzah to Michigan. Huzzah to being a best friend to women and those who love them.