San Diego County Credit Union’s® (SDCCU®) dedication to building healthier, safer and thriving communities is embedded in its corporate culture and extends outward into the community. Founded more than 75 years ago by San Diego County employees on the principle that people come first and profits second, SDCCU is now San Diego’s largest locally-owned financial institution. With $6.9 billion in assets and over 291,000 customers, SDCCU proudly supports more than 75 non-profits and participates in 200-plus community events each year.

SDCCU is encouraging San Diegans to live safely. To help protect the community from crime and abuse, SDCCU is committed to helping individuals properly dispose of sensitive data by holding annual free shred day events. In July 2014, SDCCU set a new Guinness World Record® at the SDCCU Super Shred Event, collecting and shredding 422,350 pounds of paper, protecting the community and saving 3,590 trees.

The overall impact of the SDCCU Super Shred Event was impressive thanks to the more than 7,000 people who turned out at Qualcomm® Stadium on July 26 to properly dispose of confidential information and set the new record for most paper collected in a 24-hour period at a single location.

SDCCU began hosting its free Shred Day events in 2007 and has since collected, shredded and recycled more than 1.1 million pounds of documents at no charge, saving over 10,000 trees (every 120 pounds shredded represents one saved tree).

“SDCCU is committed to helping our customers and the community protect their confidential data and privacy,” said Teresa Halleck, SDCCU President and CEO. “We are dedicated to preventing identity theft as well as our efforts to go green with our online banking services, such as eStatements and eReceipts.”

The SDCCU Super Shred Event began early Saturday morning, July 26, with hundreds of SDCCU customers, families, friends and members of the public lining up with boxes full of old documents containing personal and confidential information to be shred at no charge. Shred-It®, the world’s leading document destruction and recycling company, provided the shredding services.

Throughout the day, participants enjoyed free food provided by Mike’s BBQ and made donations to the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA, raising nearly $8,500. LinkServ E-Waste was onsite to collect and recycle electronic waste. LinkServ’s “We Pay 10” program yielded $2,000 in donations for the San Diego Humane Society and SPCA, which contributed to the total raised during the one-day event.

“SDCCU would like to thank the entire community for banding together to help take back our world record and be a part of history. The response from the community was unbelievable—we are grateful for the overwhelming show of support,” said Halleck. “More importantly, we are happy that more than 7,000 people took advantage of the free shredding services and no longer have sensitive information sitting around their homes and offices.”

For more information about SDCCU shred events, visit sdccu.com/shred.