The Dowagiac District Library will be going green next week, as the downtown institution hosts its first ever Money Smart Week Monday through Friday.

The library is partnering with Chemical Bank and Honor Credit Union to present three activities designed to teach teenagers and children financial literacy skills. The events will be free and open to the public.

The first of the three events will be “Get Smart About Credit,” from 3 to 4 p.m. Monday.

Sue Mikel with the Niles South Chemical Bank branch will discuss credit, including how credit scores are determined and why they are important, in a talk aimed at high school students and other teenagers. To help them follow along, participants will also play a bingo-style game, with organizers giving out prizes to winners.

The second event, “Money Games,” will be from 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesday. Members of Honor Credit Union will be on site with a number of games — also aimed at teenagers — focused on
financial literacy.

Library staff will serve pizza, snacks and beverages during both events.

The final activity, “Money Storytime,” will take place from 10:30 to 11 a.m. Friday.

Staff with the children’s library will read the book “A Dollar for Penny,” by Julie Glass to children. Volunteers from Honor will also show attendees how to build their own piggy banks.

The storytime event is for children 7 years old and younger. Children may take home the piggy banks they make as well as a copy of the book, donated to the library by the national Money Smart Week program.

Dowagiac will be one of many libraries, colleges, nonprofits and other organizations participating in this year’s Money Smart Week, a national program created in 2002 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The weeklong event encourages institutions to organize lectures, presentations, games and other activities that will encourage their patrons to learn how to better manage their personal finances.

For staff at the Dowagiac library, the decision to participate in this year’s Money Smart Week was easy to make, said Director Matt Weston. One of the missions of the institution is further the education of its younger patrons, not just in reading and writing but in fields like science or math, Weston said.

“Libraries are typically associated with literacy,” Weston said. “However, financial literacy is something that gets overlooked a lot of times by people.”

Partnering with Chemical and Honor for the week was a natural choice as well, Weston said. Staff members worked with the two financial institutions in the past — Chemical helping with the library’s adult financial literacy classes last year and Honor sponsoring last Saturday’s Fandom Fest — and leaders with the businesses were more than happy to participate, Weston said.

As children and teenagers frequent the library to check out books or use the computers, aiming the lessons toward youth was an easy decision to make, too, he said.

“If we can help establish good financial habits in children early on, it will be easier for them to continue to use them when they grow up,” Weston said.

For more information about the events or the library, people may call (269) 782-3826 or visit dowagiacdl.org.

 

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