Business View Magazine | July 2022

136 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 7 says could not have been accomplished without a great team effort. “If you were to tell me in March of 2020, that we were going to put most of our staff at home in eight days, and not only were they going to be home, but they were going to be productive, work was going to get done, and we were going to continue doing closings, I would have said you have lost your mind. My staff, my Chief Operating Officer, everybody just stepped up to the task.” Financial data processing company COCC, was also a major source of support for Wallkill Valley Federal through their remote set up and operations. As a community bank, Wallkill Valley Federal makes it their duty to give back to the neighborhoods they serve, in whatever way they can. Sitting on the Dutchess County Vassar Foundation Board, and chair of a local 4-year college, Horodyski shares, “We encourage our staff to get involved and use what we call our gifts, in not-for-profit organizations, helping customers experienced, and the efforts of bank staff who were working to figure out the changing situation, Horodyski relays that the focus on customer service remained. “They were able to get to somebody, they weren’t put on hold. I think that helped soothe a lot of people, knowing we were on it.” After setting money aside for anticipated loan loss during March of 2020, Horodyski reports, “At the end of the day, we didn’t need any of it. Loans kept paying, deposits flew into the bank. It made us feel good that we were there to help so many people. The multiplier effect was, we helped the business that was our customer, but then the employees of that business were also helped because we helped the business. It really was a pretty impactful thing for a small little bank like us.” Setting up a remote environment in only eight days was another surprise, which Horodyski LOAN