The Rotary Club of Waynesboro ran another of it’s well received Financial Literacy Day courses at the Waynesboro Area Senior High School (WASHS) on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
“The course is provided to all of the students who take an in-person personal finance course, or roughly 75% of the senior class. About half of those attend Financial Literacy Day during either the Fall or Spring semester.” said Kegan Crider, WASHS point of contact. 144 students participated all day on September 20th. Those students are broken into two groups. One half participate in a Budget Builder exercise for two hours in the morning, while the other half participate in a series of games offering financial lessons. In the afternoon the groups swap.
“We make this a collaborative effort” said Crider. “The school provides six or seven rooms for all the activities, organizes the students for a smooth flow through all the activities, and prints student instructional material. The Rotary Club provides the instructional material and takes care of all other requirements.”
“This is a genuine community effort”, said Dan DeDona, Rotary Chair for Financial Literacy. “Six of 17 people who participated this time are not Rotary members, but show up because they feel this is a very worthwhile effort for young adults about to set out on their own. People from Edward Jones, Shank State Farm Insurance, Orrstown Bank, Sterling Financial, Waynesboro Early Learning Center and others return year after year to participate.”
At the end of the day, game winning teams receive gift cards. The whole group also competed for movie tickets by answering questions they should have come to appreciate over the course of the day. “Bill Kohler (also a Rotarian), Mainstreet Waynesboro, the Waynesboro Theatre and our local McDonald’s are very generous each session providing these awards for good performance” said DeDona.
“Our participating seniors generally like the course” said Crider. He and Dr Eda Gjikuria work together to make each day a success. “There is nothing like having experienced adults with backgrounds in finance, budgeting, investing, insurance, and other areas share their education, experience and skills. We’re looking forward to the next Financial Literacy Day on February 7, 2024.”
The Rotary Club of Waynesboro is a service organization supporting the local community for over 100 years. They meet at the Waynesboro Country Club every Tuesday at noon. For more information, see rotaryclubofwaynesboro.org or email rotarywboro@gmail.com.
