Lessons from one weekend afternoon program will extend into college and careers for more than 250 Milwaukee teens. Make A Difference - Wisconsin joined an impressive roster of community leaders recently to give teenagers first-hand primers on financial literacy, college preparation and job interviews. Students also heard inspirational tales from former Green Bay Packers great Donald Driver, who raffled off laptops and tablets.
Collaborators at the "Bank Your Future" event included:
* Associated Bank
* Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee
* YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee
* University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
* Metro Milwaukee Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
* MillerCoors
* National Association for African-Americans in Human Resources (NAAAHR)
Allison Malone, of Northwestern Mutual, was one of our financial literacy volunteers at the event.
Money Coach teamwork makes the dream work
Nia Gray, 17, gets the value of her experience in Money Coach. She thinks about it with every coin and bill.
"Every little penny counts. Trust me, every little penny," Gray (at left) said. "I want to be somebody. I want to be a business owner and Money Coach gave me that stepping stool to achieve my goals."
Your support "helps our society": a message of gratitude
There are so many important reasons that you support financial literacy and we've heard many of them over the last month. Some of you shared with us when we called during our "thank-a-thon." Others told us after visiting a classroom or following our Money Coach celebration. A few hundred of you gave us a boost yesterday by selling out the Investment Conference, our largest fundraiser.
Here's what one great supporter, Doug Gordon, president and CEO of WaterStone Bank, told our board about the reasons he contributes to our teens programs: "There is such a need within the community. There is a financial education void in the high schools. There are so many people that get thrust into jobs instead of college and they need to know about budgeting. Financial literacy ... helps our society."
It is always reassuring to know we have so many compassionate people who participate in this financial literacy movement. On behalf of the thousands of teens who have been in our programs this year, thank you!
Committee member Sandra Dunst dialed up her appreciation during our spring supporter "thank-a-thon".
