Bank participates in campaign

    Employees from Katahdin Trust Co. traded in their balance sheets for blackboards as they visited local classrooms April 24 to help nearly 500 students learn their financial ABCs and become smart and regular savers. Gov. John E. Baldacci in noting the value of the classroom presentations said, “A life of financial success and security begins with an early education about savings and personal finance.”
    Baldacci proclaimed Tuesday, April 24, 2007 as Maine’s Teach Children to Save Day. The signing of this proclamation recognizes the importance of improving financial literacy in Maine and the efforts of the members of the Maine Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association’s Education Foundation (ABAEF) to educate our youth on the basics of personal finance through assisting teachers and making personal presentations in schools across the nation.
    This statewide initiative is part of the 11th annual National Teach Children to Save Day (NTCSD), sponsored by the ABAEF to teach kids their financial ABCs.
    “We’re delighted to be part of a nationwide program that offers money-management skills to our youth,” said Vicki Smith, senior vice president of marketing. “Helping children to save and budget will help them manage their finances in the future.”
    The Teach Children to Save presentations included discussions, games, and hands-on activities covering topics like how to budget, how interest makes money grow, importance of balancing a checkbook, and recognizing wants and needs.
    Katahdin Trust Co. employees made presentations to the following classes throughout their market area: Karen MacDonald, Ashland Elementary, third-grade; Paul Guimond, Fort Fairfield Elementary, second- and third-grade; Karen Chapman, Caribou Teague Park, fourth-grade; Crystal Parent, Eagle Lake Elementary, second-grade; Annette Beaton, Houlton Elementary, second-grade; Beth Ryan and Lori Nadeau, Southern Aroostook Community School, third-grade; Betty Cronkhite and Brenda Clark, Mars Hill Fort Street School, fourth-grade; Joe Clukey and Diane Green, Presque Isle Pine Street Elementary, kindergarten and first-grade; Peggy Bugbee and Connie Heald, Washburn Elementary, second-, third- and fourth-grade; and the third-grade class from Gateway Elementary made a field trip to the Van Buren office.
    Classroom materials used on Teach Children to Save Day support curriculum standards established by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Council of Teachers of English and the Family and Consumer Sciences.
    The ABA Education Foundation, a non-profit subsidiary of the American Bankers Association, is committed to developing and providing education programs that lead to financial literacy. The ABA Education Foundation’s National Teach Children to Save Day is held every April when thousands of bankers make presentations to students on the importance of saving for their future.