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This past school year, employees of Ridgewood Savings Bank gave a savings lesson to junior high school students in various public and private schools in Queens as part of the American Bankers Association Education Foundation’s National Teach Children to Save Program.

“We want kids to learn the skills they need to make smart financial decisions as adults,” said Ridgewood Savings Bank Chairman William C. McGarry. “Our people are in the schools to help develop those skills and prepare these kids for future financial success.”

The presentations included activities about the concept of saving, how interest makes money grow, how to budget, and how to distinguish between needs and wants. The presentations also included the parents, offering them tips such as letting their kids open the mail and talking to them about family budget, in order to bring their kids into the process early.

“The lessons we taught were fun and eye-opening for the kids as well as the parents,” said Laura Peters, Assistant Vice President for Training and Development. “Keeping the kids engaged is an important way to help them learn.

The strategy the bank employed to keep the kids engaged involved showing them how much money they spend a year on everyday items, how much of that could be saved, and what that could be turned into if put into a savings account.

If a student buys a soda everyday, hamburgers, ice cream and candy bars twice a week, French fries three times a week and one DVD per month, they spend over $1,400 a year. The students were then shown that by saving half of that, they could have over $3,000 in the bank at the end of four years by putting it into a savings account.

Since the program began in 1997, thousands of bankers have taught money skills to more than one million students, 750 coming from Queens.

Ridgewood Savings Bank is the largest mutual savings bank in New York State with $3.3 billion in assets serving more than 200,000 customers throughout the New York metropolitan area.

The ABA Education Foundation, a nonprofit subsidiary of the American Bankers Association, is committed to developing and providing education programs that lead to financial literacy. The ABA Education Foundation’s National Teach Children to Save Day is held every April when thousands of bankers make presentations to students on the importance of saving for their future.