16 Hoosier Banker June 2016 FEATURE Each April marks Financial Literacy Month throughout the United States, when financial professionals and community advocates make additional efforts to help educate consumers about financial basics. Events related to Financial Literacy Month include Indiana Money Smart Week, created by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Teach Children to Save Day, sponsored by the American Bankers Association Community Engagement Foundation; and Community Banking Month, designated by the Independent Community Bankers of America. The Indiana Bankers Association recently contacted member banks about their financial literacy efforts during the month of April and received responses from 22 banks, representing 20 percent of IBA bank membership. Going forward, the IBA plans to collect this information each year following April Financial Literacy Month. Survey results are shown in the infographic on page 18, representative responses from the following banks: 1st Source Bank, South Bend Bank of Wolcott Bath State Bank BloomBank, Bloomfield Centier Bank, Northern Indiana DeMotte State Bank Fifth Third Bank, Indianapolis First Bank Richmond, NA First Merchants Bank, Muncie First Savings Bank, Clarksville The Fountain Trust Company, Covington Garrett State Bank German American, Jasper iAB Financial Bank, Fort Wayne Lake City Bank, Warsaw Logansport Savings Bank MutualBank, Muncie Our Community Bank, Spencer Peoples Bank, Munster Terre Haute Savings Bank West End Bank, Richmond Your Community Bank, New Albany Following are some examples of Financial Literacy Month outreach from the Indiana banking community: 1st Source Bank, South Bend, employees gave financial literacy presentations in local schools. In Fort Wayne, the bank additionally participated in Money Smart presentations, leading a discussion on how to decrease debt. The bank also distributed materials from its Fort Wayne area banking centers. Bath State Bank employees volunteered in 17 classrooms to account for 84 presentations for Junior Achievement. Classrooms ranged from kindergarten through high school. In addition, at the request of area teachers, the bank made all-day presentations on the importance of savings and the economy to sixth- and 10thgrade students. The bank also helped operate a Reality Day for 10th-grade students and educated FFA students about credit scores and reports, savings and checking accounts, and agribusiness for a total of 103 presentations to 869 students in the month of April. BloomBank, Bloomfield, was represented by Betty Apple Rush, bank senior vice president and chief financial officer, who visited Bloomfield Elementary School on April 29 to present financial lessons to each of the first-grade classes. She read a story about a character named Silly Sam, discussed safe and unsafe places to store money, taught about coins and counting, and engaged the children in a drawing activity related to savings. Rush also presented each child with a coin bag containing a penny, nickel, dime and quarter as an incentive to start saving. This year marked 20 years of the bank’s outreach program. Centier Bank, Northern Indiana, participated in the Northwest Indiana Money Smart Week GeoCache for College Cash. The bank’s Money Smart Week Council donated $1,000 to a winning student at Indiana University Northwest and $500 to each of the Ivy Tech Northwest Indiana campuses for a winning student. In addition bank April 2016 Survey Results: Financial Literacy Month Bath State Bank president/CEO George Ferriell welcomes College Corner Union School fourth-grade students on their two-hour annual field trip to the bank to learn about the importance of saving, interest, route of a check and history of money. Betty Apple Rush, senior vice president and chief financial officer with BloomBank, Bloomfield, is pictured with students from Bloomfield Elementary School on April 29.
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