CommonWealth One Federal Credit Union Earns Award for Financial Education Initiatives

ALEXANDRIA, VA (11/05/2009)(readMedia)-- CommonWealth One Federal Credit Union, with offices in northern Virginia and Harrisonburg, has won a 3rd Place Award in the state Desjardins Youth Financial Education Awards for credit unions. 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 to young people.

The credit union's award-winning entry highlighted its financial education work with young people, including students at James Madison University. The credit union reached 2,100 students during the 2008-2009 school year, presenting the FDIC Money Smart seminars to high school students and the Credit Union National Association seminar Value of a Dollar to students in grades Kindergarten through 8th grade. The credit union's youth savings clubs also promote financial education, teaching young people how to budget and save, and it continues to offer training to local high school teachers on how to teach personal financial basics and how to incorporate them into lesson plans.

"CommonWealth One believes that providing personal finance training and resources to our schools and parents only helps to increase the number of financially healthy families," says John Blair, President/CEO of CommonWealth One Federal Credit Union. "Many of the money habits learned in childhood will either serve us well or haunt us in adulthood. The ability to manage our money, understand loan terms, and make informed financial choices is simply too important a life skill not to be passed on to our young people."

CommonWealth One's Headquarters is located at 4875 Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia. CommonWealth One also operates branches in Harrisonburg, Front Royal and Washington, D.C. Metro areas.

About CommonWealth One Federal Credit Union

Since 1944, CommonWealth One Federal Credit Union has grown to become one of Northern Virginia's top credit unions with more than $280 million in assets serving more than 38,000 members. CommonWealth One is a full-service, member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative committed to being the lifetime financial institution of its members. For information on our history, upcoming events, and more visit www.cofcu.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 children to save, and he promoted the idea of in-school savings programs (caisses scolaires).