A penny saved
Ryan Hodgens
(left), 13, and
brother Nathan,
15, saving money.
APRIL IS NATIONAL Financial Literacy Month, and
it doesn’t take a business degree to see that our economy is having some problems. Many Americans seem
to have lost a disciplined approach to savings and controlling spending. According to Costco members
Karyn and John Hodgens, of Rocklin, California, those
lessons need to start in childhood.
Bikes for kids
AFTERSPENDINGadayin2005cyclingwithher dayin2005cyclingwithher
then 9-year-old son at the annual Lance Armstrong
L ivestrong charity ride in Austin, Texas, Debbie
Reid came home to Utah with a mission. “I thought,
‘Every child should have this kind of experience,’ ”
says Reid, a Costco member in Salt Lake City. “Every
child should have the opportunity to have a bike.”
Her goal was ambitious: to give 1,000 bikes to
1,000 underprivileged children. She rounded up
friends and contacted Dave Zabriskie, the third
American ever to wear the yellow jersey in the
Tour de France. She visited businesses. She vetted
schools and children’s organizations.
A year later, in October 2006, Bikes for Kids
(
www.bikesforkidsutah.org) hit the finish line,
donating 1,000 brand-new bikes to children from
local Utah schools and Boys & Girls Clubs, as well
Adam@Home by Brian Basset
Karyn saw it firsthand with her then 8-year-old
son, Ryan. “He truly believed that money was meant
to be spent,” she recalls. “It is, but not all of it.” Her
husband, John, created an Excel spreadsheet to show
the boy what could happen to his money over time if
he didn’t spend it and was receiving interest. “He got
it right away,” Karyn boasts. “Now he’s a great saver.”
The Hodgens got it too, and put their skills
together to create KidsSave™, an interactive software
program that teaches kids and their parents savings
and money management. The program was intro-
duced last year and has garnered multiple awards,
including a seal of approval from The National
Parenting Center, which said, “What we discovered
was that the parents participating in the evaluation
were actually learning as well!”
The “What If” section in the program lets the
user set financial goals and learn what can happen
under different saving scenarios over time. The
“Rewards” function allows parents to add interest
and/or matching funds to their child’s account.
More information and a free trial version are
available online at
www.kidnexions.com.—Steve Fisher
as providing locks, helmets, supplies, and riding
and safety instructions. The foundation repeated its
“ 1,000 for 1,000” success in October
2007 and is making plans for
the third annual Bikes for Kids
charity bike ride and bike swap
in May 2008.
The organization
is 100 percent nonprofit, raising money
through sponsorships,
auctions and bicycle rides,
with the help of donated
supplies and volunteers
from local businesses,
including Costco. “It’s
successful because of
the support,” says Reid.
—T. Foster Jones
WHEN ROCHELLE MARKS
p ictures something in her mind,
whether it’s an object or an emotion, she sees it in the form of
a dance.
Dancing
queen
“I love ballet because it’s so
graceful. I can tell a story with
my hands,” says the home-schooler, whose parents saw her
dancing at 14 months and soon
after enrolled her in ballet, tap
and tumbling.
This led to an eight-minute
self-choreographed ballet solo
with the Phoenix Symphony
when she was 8, and to her
inclusion in a pre-professional
ballet company.
It’s this unique ability to
dance what she feels that inspired
her and her parents, Mike
and Kathy, longtime North
Phoenix Costco members, to
create a series of DVDs (www.
balletovations.com) aimed at
aspiring ballerinas. Unlike other
ballet DVDs that feature adult
instructors, these DVDs are created and taught by the 11-year-
old entrepreneur, who published
her first video, Creating Ballet
Fun with Rochelle, at age 9, choreographing all seven dances by
herself. Its sequel, Creating Ballet
Dreams with Rochelle, in which
she choreographed all 10 dances,
debuted in November 2007.
—Shana McNally
SPECIAL TO THE CONNECTION. ADAM IS © BY BRIAN BASSE T, UNIVERSAL PRESS S YNDICATE
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