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NILES — A local elementary school and credit union are teaming up to teach students about the importance of saving money.

Brandywine Elementary School celebrated the grand opening and ribbon cutting of its Bobcat Student Credit Union on Wednesday, Jan. 5 in the Brandywine Elementary gymnasium.

A division of Honor Credit Union, the Bobcat Student Credit Union is located inside the school and will be open every other Wednesday from 8:30 to 9 a.m starting next week.

Led by student tellers and managers alongside Honor team members, the student credit union is designed to teach children from grades three to six the importance of saving at a young age.

According to Honor’s Community Assistant Vice President Karol Behrle, the credit union has been partnering with schools for more than 20 years and currently operates 20 student credit unions across its member center communities.

“The team at Honor is looking forward to getting to know the students here at Brandywine and looks forward to helping set students up for a successful financial future,” she said. “Our student credit unions provide the students an opportunity to learn life skills and have fun while they’re saving money. With each deposit a student makes into their account, they receive a fun swag item, get entered into monthly raffles and more.”

In attendance for the grand opening were Honor team members, Michigan Sen. Kim LaSata, Brandywine Community Schools Superintendent Karen Weimer and Brandywine Elementary School Principal James Boger. Following speeches, the six student credit union tellers and managers joined Honor to cut the ribbon for the Bobcat Student Credit Union.

According to Boger, a student credit union through Honor had been in the works for a while, but progress slowed down due to the onset of the pandemic.

“The kids are pretty excited about it,” Boger said. “We’ve been trying to get it going, but COVID slowed us down. We’re just excited to get it rolling. We were supposed to pick four tellers but there were six of them who really wanted to do it.”

Boger hopes the credit union will provide students with financial literacy opportunities that will better prepare them for life.

“One of the things I don’t think we spend enough time with is financial literacy,” he said. “They understand money because they get money. But being able to save it and put it away and have a goal to set like buying something they want is important. This is the perfect opportunity to do that.”