2021 AC&E Preview: Mitch Albom Takes Center Stage!

On the morning of Aug. 23, during the MCUL/CUSG 2021 Annual Convention & Exposition (AC&E) in Traverse City, internationally renowned author Mitch Albom will take Center Stage! to give his keynote, “Giving is Living,” a message about the lessons he learned during his time with Morrie Schwartz (of Albom’s best-selling memoir, Tuesdays with Morrie) through his battle with ALS.

Albom is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have collectively sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, have been published in 49 territories and in 47 languages around the world and have been made into Emmy Award-winning and critically acclaimed television movies.

He started professionally writing about sports in the early ‘80s and began at the Detroit Free Press in 1985, where his columns on sports, politics and American life continue to run regularly. In the years since, Albom has garnered many awards and honors, including induction into the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.

Along with the nearly dozen books he has authored, including Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Albom also directs multiple charity efforts, such as The Dream Fund, a Detroit-based project to fund homeless shelters, and A Hole in the Roof Foundation, a faith-based organization in Detroit dedicated to the repairs of spaces used by people without homes.

As mentioned, the keynote is inspired by his time with Schwartz, which has led to Albom dedicating time to charity work and philanthropy in his Detroit community, his current work in Haiti and around the world.

He also shares that no matter what your circumstances are — rich or poor, healthy or unwell — giving to others is the essence of life, and this perspective can change everything. Albom will expand on this theme to include how one life touches another, the impact one can make in changing a life's trajectory and the making of a family. This is a message of particular interest to Michigan credit unions, a movement built on giving and always looking for new ways to positively impact people’s lives.

In 2020, shortly after the state’s COVID-19-induced shutdown, Albom participated in the League’s cooperative advertising campaign, CU Link, and its COVID-19 response campaign. With his help, the ads reassured Michigan consumers that, even during a global pandemic, credit unions were there, ready to assist their members, neighbors and larger communities make it through the tough times.

This AC&E, MCUL is happy to present a celebrated author and philanthropist that calls Michigan his home and has shown himself to be a powerful advocate for the Michigan credit union movement.