Smart money decisions begin by learning the basics. The lifelong journey to financial success begins here.

The Killbuck Savings Bank has been a proud sponsor of the HOW TO DO YOUR BANKING program since 1993.  Students enjoy using and learning from this financial literacy program.  Teachers value the program and we know it is successful because it is requested year after year.

When it comes to working with the Cemark staff, they are absolutely over the top!  Their customer service and programs make it easy to help our community with quality, always up-to-date, cost-effective materials.  When COVID hit, the newest edition with the online version enabled us to continue assisting teachers and students the entire time.

Financial Education is a cornerstone in our organization and working with Cemark to provide the necessary educational materials for the classrooms and students within our communities has been essential to our financial wellness programing.  Cemark and their team make the outreach and delivery process seamless which allows us and the teachers to focus on our relationships and the learning objectives for the students.

Cemark is very thorough in reaching out and contacting schools, follow-up, processing orders, and forwarding feedback from the teachers.  We have always received very positive comments from the schools about the workbooks, the content as well as appreciation for our sponsorship.

While these attributes are very important to BELCO, above all we appreciate the outstanding customer service provided by the Cemark staff.

Since we began with Cemark in 1994, we have helped educate over 20,000 students through the ‘How To Do Your Banking Program’.   After adding ‘Saving with Mandy & Randy’ last year, we extended valuable financial education opportunities to over 1,000 additional students.  When we do other advertising such as putting our name on banners, etc., it is costly.  Their programs are INEXPENSIVE and EFFECTIVE!  There is no way we could recreate what they provide for students at this price.  We get THE BEST service from Cemark!

Since 2009 Altana Federal Credit Union has been a proud sponsor of the Saving with Mandy and Randy program. Altana is a huge believer in the importance of financial literacy and starting those lessons early helps reach our outreach goals. Elementary teachers appreciate having the turn-key materials in their classrooms as a primary resource for the information or to enhance the lessons they are already teaching. The team at Saving with Mandy and Randy is a delight to work with and I can always count on their efficiency. We will continue to use this programming in the future and encourage others to consider doing the same.

This is a great, real-life program to teach students about managing their finances, balancing a checkbook, and explaining various financial terms. I use it yearly in my classes. Thank you for a wonderful resource!

We find the “Making the Right Money Moves” program to be cost-effective, relevant, and user friendly. Cost-effective because we set a budget for the calendar year and adjust as additional interest is found. This allows us to plan our budget and be flexible to additional opportunities.

The ease of program has been one of our favorite features.  The financial content shared is of interest to the students and teachers alike.

The value Cemark offers in the “Making the Right Money Moves” program allows First Missouri Credit Union to offer financial education to area schools at a reasonable cost and a flexible or minimal time commitment.

I have worked with Cemark and the Making the Right Money Moves program since I started at the credit union in 2015. Since then we have grown our program to include more schools. We love offering this program to our local schools as we know that any financial literacy that we can get out to students will help them build a healthy financial foundation so we can better assist them in the future. We have several teachers ask for us to come speak to their classes and it gives us the opportunity to teach students financial responsibility and gets our name out there.

Not all financial literacy programs will find their way in all schools, but Cemark’s programs have proven to be an essential piece to the financial literacy curriculum taught in elementary and junior/senior high schools by teachers who commit to the program. Financial literacy is not always easy to grasp, even as adults, so educating youth early will help them avoid the pitfalls of poor financial decisions.

Pinnacle Bank consistently receives qualifying CRA investment credit in CRA exams as long as the schools meet the free-and-reduced lunch qualifying percentages. Tracking school usage and teacher feedback is important.  Documentation supporting quantitative and qualitative aspects of the activity helps an examiner measure the effectiveness and benefit to students.

Money is a very difficult skill to teach. This was a great extra workbook to help with this skill. I think children need to learn about saving money. School should not just be book knowledge. We need to teach children about the real world. They cannot survive without money, and they really do need to learn how to count and manage money.