SEVERN, Md. — Students from Severn Elementary School put their financial literacy skills to the test with help from Baltimore Ravens players and cheerleaders during a special educational event.
M&T Bank and the Baltimore Ravens are working together to create financially educated adults by starting early with fourth-grade students. On Monday, over 70 fourth graders had the chance to test their money knowledge by playing games like financial wellness Jenga and creating a game day budget.
"These are skills that are going to make a huge difference in their life and when we build that foundation and we begin this process early we know that has a huge impact and is something that we can really do that's beneficial to them and beneficial for the whole community," Brian Walter said.
Ravens players help Severn Elementary students learn financial literacy through interactive games
Walter is the regional president of M&T Bank.
The students didn't take on these challenges alone. They got help from the Ravens' mascot Poe, Ravens cheerleaders and wide receiver Zay Flowers.
"I love doing things with the kids especially if its teaching them life lessons and M&T bank put this together to teach the kids how to start saving, like financial literacy basically so they put that together and that's something I wish I had growing up," Flowers said.
The kids were excited to show off their skills, but they were even more excited about the special guests.
"It was really fun meeting someone really famous like that," one student said.
"This is the best day ever and I will never wash this hand for the next 20 years or eternity," another student said.
Flowers says these types of opportunities make a huge difference in students' lives and he hopes they hold on to these lessons as they grow up.
"Learning it as early as you can and just applying it to your life because its going to help you in the long run learning how to save your money cus its a lot of people that be in my position and loose everything they got. So learning that early they will learn how to take care of it and know what the difference between needs and wants are," Flowers said.
The financial literacy skills the students learned are part of M&T Bank and the Baltimore Ravens Financial Fitness Academy, which has a goal of providing financial education to students in fourth through sixth grade across Maryland.
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