Beach Municipal Federal Credit Union Earns State, National Honors for Financial Literacy Work

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (12/22/2011)(readMedia)-- Beach Municipal Federal Credit Union has won 1st Place in the state Desjardins Youth Financial Education Awards for credit unions and Honorable Mention in the national competition. The Desjardins Awards, sponsored by the Virginia Credit Union League and the Credit Union National Association, honor credit unions for their commitment to teaching personal finance basics in their communities.

The credit union's award-winning entry showcased its popular week-long Camp Millionaire, designed to give middle school students firm footing in personal finance basics; Financial Fridays, a semester-long series of classes for high school students, providing lessons on budgeting and money management; and its participation in the Virginia Beach Public Library's UR$4Life program, which included the coordination of Reality Store events, offering teens lessons in the real-world decisions that go into managing a household budget.

The credit union's success in running Reality Store events led it to develop its own variation of the program, called "This Is Your Life," through which the credit union was able to reach 630 students with lessons on money management and budgeting basics.

The credit union was also recognized for the 250 hours of staff time spent reaching 3,220 young people through financial education initiatives in local classrooms, as well as the credit union's youth accounts, which encourage savings.

"We firmly believe that financial education is our credit union's responsibility if we're to live up to philosophies that built the credit union movement," says Beach Municipal Federal Credit Union CEO Geri Metzger. "We're proud of our efforts to educate consumers on evaluating the many products and services offered in the financial marketplace and we hope we can empower them to make the smart choices that contribute to their overall financial success."

Beach Municipal Federal Credit Union is a $106.4 million member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative, serving more than 12,000 members. Learn more about the credit union online at http://www.beachmunicipal.org.

The award is named in honor of Alphonse Desjardins, the founder of the North American credit union movement, who established the first "caisse populaire" (people's bank) in Quebec in 1900, and helped establish the first American credit union in New Hampshire in 1909. Desjardins was an ardent believer in the value of teaching individuals to save, and he promoted the idea of in-school savings programs (caisses scolaires).