ROANOKE, VA --

Columbus Day for many means a day off from work, but for some local bankers it was a day spent volunteering in the community.

The sound of a sidewalk edger isn't typically what Freedom First Credit Union Employees hear at work, but on a bank holiday they're spending their day off with tools in hand.

Teams were out across the Roanoke and New River Valleys, but there's a particular interest at the West End Center.

This is actually not our first year serving in this area and so we're seeing each year a little bit more towards this improvement and then we're also able to see what the vision is for 5-10 years down the road, explained Sarah Andrews, COO of Freedom First Credit Union.

That vision includes a new community center with a Freedom First Credit Union inside helping spark economic development in the area.

The goal with the revitalization project in West End is to connect it to the growth that's happening in the Grandin Village area to the growth that's happening down the road in downtown Roanoke.

My hope is this is a place that people want to come. That as we kind of plant a branch here and development starts to happen economically with businesses starting to pop up in this corridor that this could be a place that in 8 to 10 years where people come to do shopping, to go to restaurants, to go to a coffee shop, to get everything that they need done, said Rod Nunez, Freedom First Credit Union Vice President of Community Development.

Getting employees out in West End allows them to see firsthand the area their company is investing in.

I think that the employees that are new to the company really begin to see that we're not just about lip service that we actually come out and serve in many capacities, Andrews said.

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Freedom First Credit Union employees clean up West End area