A local credit union has launched a new program with cool prizes to encourage kids to start saving money.

Having a program for kids to learn to save money isn’t a new concept for Tri-CU. The credit union launched its Johnny Appleseed program not long after it opened in 1969. 

Through the program, Tri-CU was shipped prizes from the Johnny Appleseed company, but in the last 10 or so years, they began to feel a little outdated.

“Revamping this has been a long time coming,” said Danielle Prescott, vice president of member services. 

It was Erin Goodnight, Tri-CU’s member services representative, who came up with the idea for a dragon-themed program. 

As an aunt, she was thinking about what would make her nephews excited. Not only are dragons popular for both younger and older kids, she said, they also are known for hoarding treasure. 

It’s a perfect mascot for a savings account. 

Starting to save

Treasure Trove accounts are available for kids from birth to age 12. They’ll need to have a social security number, and a parent or guardian needs to open the account with them. 

Tri-CU has an office set aside to talk to the kids and their parents about the program. Once that’s done, kids receive a free piggy bank and free use of Tri-CU’s coin machine, where a pile of coins can be dropped in all at once and sorted.

They also get a treasure tracker card with a dragon on it and 10 slots to stamp. Each time a child makes a deposit, they get a stamp on their card and the chance to pick an item from a treasure chest on display at the front desk.

When they reach 10 deposits, they get a choice of a $1 deposit into their account or a $1 gold coin, as well as a trip to the treasure chest.

Tri-CU hopes to rotate out the prizes in the chest so that they stay fresh.

So far, the giant fake gems have been popular. Other prizes include fidget toys, slime, putty, rubber ducks and fake gold coins.

Although the goal is to help kids practice saving money, they can also choose prizes each quarter by bringing in their report card, and once a year during their birthday month.

The Treasure Trove savings account needs a minimum deposit of $5 to open, and kids can earn 5% on the first $500 in the account. 

It can be exciting for the kids to look at their account each month and see the dividend, Prescott said. And opening an account is a good way of teaching kids that it’s OK to let go of their money and keep it in a savings account.

After the age of 12, kids in the Treasure Trove program automatically have their account rolled into a normal savings account. 

At that point, parents can even choose to start a checking account for them so that kids can begin to learn about budgeting and debit cards.

Community connection

The dragon mascot also keeps Tri-CU connected to the nearby community. 

The credit union is next door to Southgate Elementary School, which also features a dragon as its mascot. 

Trevor Galey, vice president of lending, said that the school is often a focus of Tri-CU’s efforts to give back to the community. “This has been kind of a natural extension of that,” he said. 

Prescott hopes that the kids at the school might want to be a part of the program, and the shared mascot could be a good way to connect. 

The credit union is uniquely focused on the local community: it only has a single building at 3213 W. 19th Ave., Kennewick, and members must live, work, worship or attend school in Benton or Franklin counties, or have an immediate family member who is already a member. 

The credit union has 6,000 members spanning multiple generations, and parents of kids don’t have to be members for their kids to join the Treasure Trove program. 

So far, all of the kids who were a part of the Johnny Appleseed program have automatically joined the new Treasure Trove program, so there are over 100 participating kids.

Already, Tri-CU has had its first new kid sign up for the Treasure Trove program, which launched in mid-August. 

As the program gets going, Prescott anticipates it will only get better and include more perks for kids. 

“There’s just going to be nothing but good things that come with it,” she said.

Go to: tri-cu.com.