WASHINGTON–Young credit union members saved some $2.8 million in “Money Magic” deposits as part of this year’s National Youth Savings Challenge, according to CUNA.
The trade group reported that this year 12,103 youth representing 100 credit unions deposited an average of $231.84 per child, with 160 new youth accounts opened as part of the effort.
The theme of this year’s National Credit Union Youth Month was “Money Magic.” Participating credit unions encouraged kids to share, spend and save wisely through their credit union with giveaways, contests, virtual financial education and more.
“This year marks the thirteenth annual National Youth Saving Challenge,” said Michelle Kamke, marketing projects manager at CUNA. “More credit unions participated than last year, taking advantage of digital resources to help kids develop healthy money habits amid the coronavirus pandemic.”
To encourage participants, CUNA reported it offered a grand prize of $1,000 to create 10 youth awards worth $100 each, and randomly selected Expree CU of Kentucky as the winner of this grand prize.
“Rather than hold off on youth month activities, we saw our current affairs as an opportunity to tell people why they should raise kids that are financially savvy,” said Heather Perkins, chief marketing officer at Expree CU. “This crisis really demonstrates to our children how vital planning for tomorrow is, as we saw with supply shortages, and people being laid off from work. Real circumstances had a huge impact on many people in our community which inevitably youth were seeing firsthand.”