MyCom CEO & Chief Financial Officer Lisa Laughnane, right, and loan officer Shirley Rodgers pose with the creators of the top ads for the federal credit union: Grayson Mauer, Melanie Ramsey and Jorden Wood.
Stearns Elementary teachers John Ireland and Mel Davis are teaching the children about money and finance.
Laughnane and Rodgers explain what credit unions are and how they differ from banks.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Ahead of their summer vacation, second grade students at Stearns Elementary School participated in our Junior Marketers Create an Ad series.
In their ads, students drew items people dream of having from cars, trucks, motorcycles, dirt bikes, and boats, demonstrating MyCom Federal Credit Union’s commitment to help individuals achieve their financial goals.
MyCom Federal Credit Union, located at 101 Fenn St., works with Berkshire County community members to foster financial education and serve its members, helping them meet their financial needs.
"Our mission is people helping people. We are there to grow our membership, help them reach their financial goals and also help our community," CEO and Chief Financial Officer Lisa Laughnane.
"MyCom is a credit union [and] a credit union is much different from a bank …our focus is on our people and not the profits."
Unlike banks, credit unions are considered to be owned by the members instead of stakeholders, so its members are able to receive its profits back in terms of lower loan rates and higher savings rates, she explained.
Prior to the project, students learned about what financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions, are used for, said John Ireland, general education teacher.
A major component of that is understanding how people typically go to these institutions to get loans for big purchases and pay it back over time, he said.
"Kids these days, don't use physical money as much as we used to," he said. "Especially, when I was younger, like you would pay for your school lunch with your quarters, you were used to using money, spending money, seeing money go away."
Today people buy things online or using credit cards, Ireland and special education teacher Mel Davis said.
"They're not physically seeing their parents using money as much. So, there's a disconnect between money and what we get with our money," Ireland said.
In class, they aim to bridge that disconnect through lessons, such as its bank ticket activity, where students earn tickets and save them to get prizes, he said.
"We're kind of creating that value of, 'if I want something great, I need to save my tickets and not spend them on little things so I can get the bigger thing.' So, we kind of try to connect the bark tickets to the money to the bank, and drew all those things together," Ireland said.
Learning these concepts at a young age creates lifetime habits that will help them in the future, Ireland and Davis said.
In addition to making ads, the students continued their path toward financial literacy during a school visit from Laughnane and loan officer Shirley Rodgers.
"We like to start at the lowest age possible … It's very important for them to start learning how to save, how they can watch their money grow, and what they can do with their money if they save it," Laughnane said.
The duo distributed coin savers to the students so they know that MyCom is their credit union, Laughnane said.
"They can come to ask us questions about how to save, how to open an account, and we will be there from this age that they are, in elementary school, to when they're graduating high school and college and have a degree and job of their own," she said.
One of the things MyCom does is its lending and loans which is something the students depicted very well through their drawings of a range of vehicles, Laughnane said.
Rodgers spends a lot of time helping members make sure they can get that vehicle they need to help them get to work, earn money for their family, and do the errands that they may need to do, she said.
"So I think they did a great job of representing the credit union. Those vehicles are very important to someone's life, and not everyone really thinks about how important it is when they get in every day," she said.
MyCom staff selected the three winners: Grayson Mauer for first place, Melanie Ramsey for second, and Jorden Wood for third.
Each of the winners represented a different vehicle they could get a loan for at the credit union. Its members apply for a range of things including trucks, off-road recreational vehicles, and sports cars, Laughnane said.
Mauer said he drew a dirt bike because he likes them and learned how to save money. Ramsey said she drew a truck which was bought by going to MyCom to borrow money. Wood said he drew the car from the film "Fast and Furious" because he thought it was cool. The car was purchased by going to MyCom to get a loan, he said.
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