Last week on Wednesday, the Midwest Bank’s newest branch opened in Plainview, the “Pirate Branch’ at the Plainview Elementary, the realized efforts of a number of bank members and school employees – community members all, interested in helping Plainview’s youth learn a good habit.
Bank employee Corby Forbes had heard about the program at the Nebraska Banker’s Association meeting last summer. At that meeting, Jennifer Davidson, President of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education and an associate professor at the University of Nebraska –Lincoln, presented the program and how much attraction it had received through the state.
The idea made its way back to Plainview, and to Branch staff Kevin Lingenfelter and Jamie
Norris. Norris then reached out to Elementary Principal Jen Hodson and the work began to create the “Pirate Branch.”
The “Branch” allows students to make a deposit every Thursday morning at the school, rather
than having to stop by the Bank directly. Fourth- through sixth grade students were officially
trained on how to be tellers: taking the deposits, handling and counting the funds, and then giving deposit slips to the students.
Along the way, some physical parts of the “Branch” were also created – Lingenfelter showed
Dr. Mike Bernecker an idea for the teller station, and Bernecker hand-crafted the entire teller station, and donated it to the school.
According to a release from the Bank: “The program isn’t tailored around how much they save, but rather the consistency of which they save. Students receive weekly incentives that grow in significance the more weeks they save.”
“We truly feel that helping the younger generation learn these financial literacy skills will pay large dividends in their futures,” said Forbes. “The students have really enjoyed it and the feedback we have received has been very positive. It’s been really fun to see their excitement each week.”
Recognition was given during the ribbon cutting at the “Pirate Branch,” which the Plainview Chamber of Commerce helped kick off: “First and foremost, a huge thank-you goes out to Jen Hodson and all of her efforts in promoting this program and encouraging all of the students
to participate. She played a tremendous role in getting this all started,” said Forbes. “One also goes out to the entire school staff for their support and coordination efforts each week as well. I
especially want to thank the student tellers who took the leap of faith in helping this first year. I also want to thank Jennifer Davidson and the Nebraska Council on Economic Education for their presentation and continued partnership of this program.
A huge thank-you also goes out to Mike Bernecker for building the beautiful teller station for us. Kevin provided Mike with only a mere picture of what we were looking for and he built it in under a month. He went above and beyond on the project, and we can’t thank him enough for all of his work. Lastly, I really want to thank Kevin and the rest of upper management at Midwest Bank for supporting us in this journey and seeing Jamie and I’s vision for this program.
We are fortunate to work for an institution that is so deeply invested in its community.”
Plainview Chamber of Commerce members Jody Born, Ashley Dendinger and Melissa Hoffart helped with the “Pirate Branch” Ribbon Cutting last Wednesday.
Dr. Mike Bernecker with his grandson, Korver Lingenfelter, behind the teller station
Bernecker built for the “Pirate Branch.”
