Reading to kids was just one part of the year-long, statewide effort that helped North Carolina's State Employees' Credit Union earn top honors at the recent National Youth Involvement Board conference, unseating longtime national leader Michigan in the “number of students reached” category. In the past year, SECU branch and operations staff took the financial education message to nearly 64,000 students in 994 classrooms. Here, the setting is Magnolia Elementary School in Lumberton, where Bonnie Canady, senior vice president of the Lumberton-Fayetteville Road branch, does the honors. She’s joined by the mascot for the 238-branch SECU’s FAT CAT youth savings program.
