Girls bank on finance

By Ed Merrison
IT MAY be a rich man’s world, but it’s the girls at Sassafras Primary who really know the colour of money.
Amber, Luci and Libby made it a clean sweep for the girls in a recent colouring competition to promote a school banking program.
Belgrave Bendigo Bank branch manager James Soo presented the girls with certificates on Wednesday, 13 September.
He praised the way they used their arts and wiles to advertise the course, which taught students in grades five and six the basics of banking.
Mr Soo and colleague Sam Calogero gave the students two hour-long sessions earlier in the term. First-placed Amber said the course had been interesting.
“We learned all this stuff about banks and opening accounts,” she said. “And we got to fill out fake cheques and I made myself rich.”
Libby, who came third in the competition, said her $5 prize money had boosted her personal stash to $49.
She is yet to open a bank account but will be a good customer one day if her dreams of striking it rich come true.
“I wouldn’t mind being a fashion designer and I’d like to be a writer,” she said.
“I hope it’ll make me rich, but I wouldn’t do it for the money – I’d do it because I enjoyed it.”