43
Millcreek kids learn about money from J.A.
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Xavier Smith, 4, and Micah Ross, 5, learned the difference among spending, saving and sharing their money and the importance of each.
Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley and PNC Bank visited Millcreek Children’s Center on Tuesday to teach preschoolers some basics about money.
Michele Merkel, JA president, said the program is part of the organization’s financial education plan that meshes with PNC’s mission for early education.
“The younger, the better,” she said of the age of students learning about money.
Mary Ann Heston, customer-service representative at PNC, read the children two stories depicting characters saving money for something they want. Afterward, each preschooler was given three jars and labels to color and tape on them, one for saving, one for sharing and one for spending.
“You put money in it, and keep it,” explained Jayda Marion, 4.
“You keep it so somebody doesn’t take it,” added Micah.
Xavier plans to use money from his spending jar to buy Spider Man and Lightning McQueen gear.
The sharing jar is for helping others such as a best friend, Jayda said, pointing to Micah.
“My best friend is my dad, my mom and my sister,” Xavier said.
The PNC Foundation, which gets most of its funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, awarded $67,000 in grants last October to Junior Achievement of Mahoning Valley and the YMCA of Youngstown to provide financial-education programs to preschool children in Mahoning and Trumbull counties. The program is part of PNC Grow Up Great, a $350 million, multiyear initiative that started in 2004 to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.
Merkel said the program helps children recognize coins, learn the value of those coins and to understand the difference among saving, sharing and spending.