BUCHANAN — Michigan Gateway Community Foundation, serving south Berrien and Cass Counties, has implemented a new program in Buchanan, Kickstart To Career, a children’s savings account program for kindergartners.

“We have the wonderful capacity to help graduating seniors in Buchanan pursue their postsecondary education via the Buchanan Promise Scholarship and thought a great way to help them prepare is to work at the other end when they start school as kindergarteners,” said Robert N. Habicht, the president/CEO of Michigan Gateway Community Foundation.

The foundation will seed every incoming kindergarten student with a $50 deposit only savings account at Chemical Bank. The Foundation and its donors will add incentive match deposits to accounts over the student’s school life, and students, their families, relatives and friends will be encouraged to grow their account for the next 13 years until high school graduation, so they will have financial support in addition to the Promise Scholarship.

“Scholarship distributions are limited to certain educational expenses by the Internal Revenue Service,” Habicht said. “The Children’s Savings Account will not have those restrictions, allowing students to manage other costs needed for postsecondary and career success, education or otherwise.”

The K2C program will support the goals of the Buchanan Promise — successful completion of postsecondary education — with information and communication relative to planning for postsecondary success and career preparation. It will seek to encourage family and when age-appropriate, the student to develop savings habits, provide financial literacy education to families to encourage good planning and goal setting, and encourage parental and family engagement in both the savings program, supporting student academic achievement, and pointing children toward the expectation of a successful postsecondary experience.

For more information on the K2C program, or to establish a new scholarship or endowment with Michigan Gateway Community Foundation, contact Rob Habicht, President/CEO, at (269) 695-3521, email him at rhabicht@mgcf.org, or visit buchananpromise.org.