Bulldog Finance Fair promotes fiscal 'cents'

KOOTENAI — In the financial world, there are fun decisions and wise ones  — a lesson Sandpoint High School seniors learned last Wednesday at a Coldwater Creek money management program.

Entitled the Bulldog Finance Fair: Life After Allowance, the program helps teach seniors the fundamentals of finance management through seminars and a hands-on workshop. Coldwater Creek associate Tasha Thomas brought the program to the business’ attention while pursuing her master’s in business administration last year.

“I participated in a final project called My Life, My Money that was designed for 30 students,” she said. “We ended up customizing the program for Sandpoint High School’s entire senior class.”

The alterations resulted in a workshop of impressive scale. During the last year’s class, the program instructed 215 high schoolers. The 2010 Bulldog Finance Fair was even bigger, with more than 250 seniors passing through the Coldwater Creek doors.

“Everything about the fair was expanded this year,” Thomas said. “We had more kids, more speakers, more involvement from community businesses and we extended the event by an hour.” 

The Bulldog Finance Fair began at 8:30 a.m. after SHS bused its seniors to Coldwater Creek headquarters in Kootenai. Dividing the program between a seminar and a workshop, the program directors separated students into two groups. While one group attended the seminars, the other participated in an elaborate workshop.

At the beginning of the workshop, each student received a card detailing their fictitious life, including everything from their marriage status and education to their income. The program challenged students to financially balance their life while considering expensive wrinkles like kids, student loans and other fiscal obligations.

“Essentially, we assigned each student a new identity,” divisional vice president of merchandise control Brian McCarthy said.

Participants than walked between different booths, trying to make smart financial decisions based on their new identity. Local businesses participated by directing a related booth. Century 21 manned My Bills, Yokes ran My Food, Schweitzer handled My Fun, Taylor Parker managed My Ride and Sandpoint Family Services covered My Kid. Appropriately, Coldwater Creek retained control over the My Closet booth.

Each booth challenged the youth with expenses in low, medium and high gradients. For example, the My Ride booth presented the choice between a new car, a used car and a bus pass. The students then puzzled out the best options to keep themselves afloat. After reviewing the students’ choices, the program director entered financially responsible participants into a raffle for prizes like an iPad.

“I was one of the people in the simulation, and I was surprised how seriously they took it,” McCarthy said. “It was gratifying to see how much thought they put into making their decisions.”

The themes of financial responsibility carried over to the seminar portion of the program. Community advocate Susan Kiebert and EzyDog owner John Hatcher served as guest speakers for the event.

According to McCarthy, the students were considerate and engaged throughout both portions of the program.

“As someone who doesn’t have much contact with high school kids, I was really impressed with their respect being in an office environment,” he said.

The Bulldog Financial Fair ended at 12:30 p.m. Thomas said that the students she talked to had glowing reports about their experiences throughout the morning.

“Now I realize what my parents are going through,” one student said. “I get why they’re so stressed out all the time.”