Staffer and Husband Find Fame in JDCU Ad

The Spellissys — you can’t miss them — are featured on billboards in 12 towns.

It is said that everyone is visited, sooner or later, by the proverbial 15 minutes of fame. For the Spellissys, Donna and Bernie, it came suddenly — and at a most unexpected time.

It was at the Chancellor’s inaugural at O’Leary Library in April. They found themselves talking to a woman, Michelle Silveira, chief marketing officer for the Jeanne d’Arc Credit Union, who happened to mention an upcoming ad campaign. Oh, replied the Spellissys, they had been JDCU members for 25 years, and had always been treated well. The conversation, 99 times out of 100, would have ended there — but of course it didn’t, or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Donna and Bernie, not long after, found themselves with a commercial photographer behind the Tsongas Arena, posing for photographs. The photos became a poster, the poster a billboard — then the billboards multiplied. “At JDCU,” the caption read, “banking is about us. …They really are in it for you."

By mid-June, the billboards were up — in at least a dozen locations in nine towns from Lawrence south to Billerica — with Donna and Bernie, looking positively regal, several times life-size, smiling out at the passing traffic. They are scheduled to stay in place through the end of August.

“It’s been a real thrill,” says Donna, who works as coordinator in the Office of Special Events. “One minute we’re just having a conversation; the next thing you know, our pictures are all over the place. It’s been quite an experience. But I have to say, we’ve enjoyed it.”