Wells Fargo branch manager in Bethel named company’s top employee volunteer of the year

One of the most remote Wells Fargo branches in the country has produced the company's top employee volunteer of the year.

With the recognition comes a $26,000 donation for one of that volunteer's favored causes, the Bethel homeless shelter.

Jon Cochrane, Wells Fargo branch manager in Bethel, has been named the bank's top volunteer service award honoree among more than 600 employees nationwide who applied.

Cochrane is the current president of Bethel Winter House and also is a founding board member. He has served as volunteer director of the shelter, overnight caretaker and cook. He and his wife, Anny, also are emergency foster parents. He's served in leadership roles for a host of organizations including Bethel Family Clinic, Bethel Actors Guild and the city of Bethel's finance committee and planning commission.

Over the course of a month, he puts in an average of 40 hours in community service, Wells Fargo said.

Cochrane grew up in a military family that moved around a lot. But he had an eight-year stretch during junior and senior high school in Anchorage. He always thought he'd return.

When he got the Bethel position with Wells Fargo, he figured the family would spend a year in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta hub. That was more than four years ago. Now Bethel is home for the Cochranes, who have six children.

"We loved the freedom, flexibility and family time that life out here offered so we decided to stay," he said in an email.

Volunteers are looking for a permanent home for Bethel Winter House, which the Salvation Army had been running.

[At the edge of survival: Bethel's homeless shelter and those it serves]

The Wells Fargo donation will help greatly, Cochrane said. It's on top of earlier donations from Wells Fargo for Winter House, amounting to a total of $34,000 for the year, Wells Fargo said. Most years the entire budget is under $40,000, with a state grant making up the biggest portion, he said.

"It really is nice not to be right on the edge of survival," he said.

The attention also draws other assistance, he said. Wells Fargo representatives from elsewhere are offering ideas on how to help the little nonprofit that runs Winter House.

The Bethel group wants to do more than run a shelter that saves people from freezing on cold winter nights, he said. They hope to take the program to another level and help those in need with transitional housing and jobs.

"We've been operating in emergency mode forever," Cochrane said. "Now we have people with some experience reaching out to us."