DOLLAR ‘$EN$E’ — Buckeye South Elementary School Principal Julie Packer, left, and Angie Coe, Unified Bank retail banking and area sales manager, display a collection of children’s books on financial literacy donated to the school’s second-grade class by Unified Bank. -- Contributed

MARTINS FERRY — Unified Bank and Buckeye South Elementary School recently teamed together to bring financial awareness education to second-graders in the Yorkville, Tiltonsville and Rayland area.

Unified donated 50 books on financial literacy to the school in hopes of encouraging interest in financial awareness with students. Buckeye South Elementary Principal Julie Packer received the books on behalf of the school and said they would be used in various ways to make the subject of money come alive for her students.

According to the FDIC website, www.fdic.gov, “Teaching kids about money early on will help them to become more financially independent as they get older. Financial education has been linked to lower debt levels, higher savings, and higher credit scores as children mature into adulthood.”

“Realizing that you don’t just hand money to a second-grader and expect them to understand its importance, we came up with the idea of providing fun, easy-to-understand books like ‘One Cent, Two Cent, Old Cent, New Cent’ by Dr. Seuss and ‘Trouble With Money’ and ‘Dollars and Sense’ from the Berenstain Bears collection to schools in our area,” commented Don Feenerty, Unified community development executive.

“We figured our local school teachers were the ones best qualified to teach the subject, and we laid out a plan to help,” he added.

Unified Bank provides fiscal literacy programs for school children and adults. Those interested in a free group program on fiscal literacy and budgeting can contact Feenerty at dfeenerty@unifiedbank.com. Unified also provides free financial education programming for pre-kindergarten through grade 12 to teachers, homeschoolers and club leaders on its website at https://unifiedbank.com/financial-education.

Unified Bank is a full-service FDIC-insured, state-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Martins Ferry and has 19 locations that serve the Ohio counties of Athens, Belmont, Carroll, Fairfield, Harrison, Hocking, Jefferson and Tuscarawas and Marshall County in West Virginia. Unified Bank is the sole operating subsidiary of United Bancorp Inc., a publicly traded bank holding company, and has been serving the financial needs of the Ohio Valley since 1902 from its headquarters in Martins Ferry.