Ridgestone Bank Volunteers Provide Time and Talent to Milwaukee Area Students

JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT FINANCE PARK EVENT A SUCCESS

Ridgestone Bank Volunteers Provide Time and Talent to Milwaukee Area Students

Junior Achievement (JA) invited roughly 140 students from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee to visit the JA Finance Park on Friday, July 29th, 2011 for a day of learning about life-based money lessons. Ridgestone Bank in Brookfield sent six volunteers to help teach the kids at the day-long event.

JA Finance Park helps students build a foundation for making intelligent, lifelong, personal financial decisions through hands-on, realistic site-based experiences. Students are introduced to personal finance and career exploration. The students receive family and income scenarios, then visit 15 businesses to purchase things like insurance, clothing, food, transportation and real estate. They create a budget, allocate utility expenses and make personal investments. Students are the sole providers for a family and must accommodate the needs of the family without over spending.

“This is a valuable experience for the students, and honestly, I think all of us from the bank enjoyed it as much as the kids did,” said Bruce Lammers, CEO of Ridgestone Bank. “The real-life scenarios they were able to experience is an education kids cannot necessarily learn from a book. And it was fun to see the fire in their eyes and the motivation to succeed.”

The Ridgestone Bank volunteers that day were: Bruce Lammers, Robert Reddy, Crystal Ferron, Avelina Pesqueira, Errol Barnett and Christine Brauckhoff.

Ridgestone Bank is a privately-held bank with branches in Brookfield, WI, and Schaumburg, IL. Founded in 1995, the bank is a leader in small business and government assisted lending and also provides retail banking services, including checking, money markets, CD's, Home Equity Loans and other convenience services. The bank was the 20th largest SBA 7(a) lender in the United States and first in the nation for USDA loans in 2009 and 2010. Currently, Ridgestone Bank is the number one SBA lender in Illinois. Further, Ridgestone Bank was recognized as a valued partner by the Wisconsin office of the USDA for its commitment to small businesses. For more information call 262-789-1011 or visit www.ridgestone.com.

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