WGN-TV Show Notes April 29, 2002

Do you know what your child does with his or her allowance? Imagine if your child was responsible for handling the weekly allowance for everyone at school.

That’s what happens everyday at the Saucedo Bank of the Millennium.

WGN’s money saving expert, Ilyce Glink shows how this new generation is learning to save and grow their money.

“I’m Luisa and I’m secretary of Saucedo’s Bank of the Millennium.”

“I’m Jimmy and I’m a teller at the Bank of the Millennium.”

“I’m Ashley and I’m vice president of the Saucedo Bank of the Millennium.”

“I’m Erin and I’m president of the Saucedo Bank of the Millennium.”

Students and teachers trust these students and others with more than $16,000 of their money, in this 3-year-old bank located inside Saucedo Scholastic Academy on the city’s west side.

“The students really run the bank. They named the bank. They have their own board of directors, their own officers and they set the rules,” says David Voss, CHM First Bank of the Americas.

“We train them. Show them how to open up new accounts. How to be at teller. How to do the interest. How to file stuff, so they’re getting all aspects of what’s going on on a day-to-day basis,” says Pamela Samulis, math resources teacher and teacher coordinator for the bank.

Handling the deposits and withdrawals is the easy part. The tough part is making sure the books balance at the end of the day.

“Sometimes they get a little careless and they may not balance out. We may have been short a dollar or a quarter and I have to remind them, this is someone else’s money and you have to be very, very careful,” Samulis says.

In addition to serving the student population, some of the kids here serve as personal bankers, so the teachers don’t have to leave the classroom and still get their banking done.

But it isn’t just the teachers who like the convenience of third floor banking. Students like it too. As do their parents.

“Some of the parents have no savings accounts and this allows them to save through their children. So they have opened up the account at school and are making their deposits through the children,” Samulis says.

“In the regular banks, if you’re 10-years-old, you can’t take out money. But in the school bank, you can,”says Angelica Nuno, age 10.

Getting comfortable with banks now, will hopefully make it easier for these students to save money, build an excellent credit history and avoid predatory lenders in the future.

This week, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is sponsoring Money Smart Week, a series of free programs about spending less and saving more. Here are today’s free programs and where you’ll find them:

How to Raise a Money-savvy Kid
Time: 10:30am and 1:30pm
Northern Trust Bank
181 W. Madison St., 7th Fl.

Financial Fraud and ID Theft
Time: 2pm
Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington St.

Basics in Banking
Time: 6pm
Conducted in Spanish
The Resurrection Project
1818 S. Paulina

Investor Fraud: Things To Be Aware Of
Time: 7pm
Chicago Public Library’s Portage-Cragin Branch
5108 W. Belmont Ave.

April 29, 2002