The 552 students at Walter Bracken Elementary School have no idea how lucky they are to be able to participate in the “The Piggy Bank,” a new program from the United Way of Southern Nevada teaching them how to save money while learning how a bank operates. When I was in sixth grade my parents opened a bank account for me and my siblings at Silver State Schools Credit Union (I still have my savings account) and I remember feeling very grown up at the time. Unfortunately, that’s where it ended. With my parents, and they did the best they could with teaching us the importance of financial freedom. If only this program was around when I was younger I might have had a better grasp of money management as I got older (luckily for me, my boyfriend has a degree in finance and he is a stickler at holding me accountable for my spending ~ thanks babe. I’m almost debt free!)
Volunteers from United Way’s Young Philanthropists Society, the elementary school, Anderson Foundation, Junior Achievement, and my childhood bank came together to build a student bank at the school allowing them the opportunity to get the full experience. Every Friday for one hour they go to the bank and interact with volunteers serving as bank tellers, get deposit slips and bank statements and see savings reminder decals on the walls, in addition to attending educational money management sessions and having a TV showing each classrooms account balance. The payoff outside of the priceless education is an actual account opened by the United Way on behalf of the school with deposits made for the students by the Young Philanthropists Society volunteers.
This program is necessary and should be in every school.
Thank you for reading
Adrienne xo
Adrienne N Hester
Me and My Alter Ego 