By Josh Beavers
Education, education, education. That’s the responsible parent’s clarion call to action for their children. You want a better life? Educate yourself. Period. Point of fact. The bottom line cause Stone Cold said so.
But where does education begin? In the home? Sure, of course. Little things like – don’t touch a hot stove, don’t play in the road, and don’t talk to strangers. But there’s much more to education and learning about the world around you and out of your sight.
And that education, that real life-altering education, begins with reading. The world revolves around communication and the written word. Illiteracy is a devastating disadvantage for one to carry out into the daily fray.
That’s why Teresa Little and others at B1Bank in Minden are so committed to helping local schools in any way they can. This commitment to our children was on display last week during the annual Dr. Seuss Read Across America events held at Richardson Elementary in Minden.
Principal Michelle Finely welcomed Teresa and several other members of the B1 team to read to Richardson fourth and fifth grade Roadrunners. They have done so annually since 2018.
The volunteers included:
Teresa Little
Debbie Logan
Jane Waller
Jessica Marks
Sherry Thornton
Morgan Monday
Jordan Colvin
I spoke with Teresa about the importance of the event.
“Reading is one of the fundamentals of learning,” she told me. “It is important to us to help promote reading and to show the kids that reading can be fun. We will be reading books that teach things about money or savings. We have one lady that reads a book about the dollar bill, and she passes out dollar bills to her class.”
My follow-up question: Why does the bank think it is important to support local schools?
Her answer: “We believe it is important to give back to our community. We even have our own program called b1COMMUNITY that encourages our employees to volunteer in our community. Each employee is given 16 hours per year paid volunteer time to give back any way they would like.”
B1 also supports local children via employee fundraising for St. Jude, the toy drive for the Young Women’s Service Club, the toy drive for Patrick White’s We’re Here organization, volunteering in the baby boutique at Seed’s, and hosting the Webster Leadership (youth) for the day that includes MHS, Lakeside, and Glenbrook students.
They also help with the community Easter egg hunt for the YWSC, help with mock interviews at Minden High, teach classes at Lakeside and Glenbrook about credit, credit scores, lending, etc., and are a big help with Webster Ready Start.
Teresa Little and the team of B1Bank employees who traveled to Richardson Elementary last week are committed to future generations. They are wonderful examples of how local business people can do it all “For the Kids.”
(“For the Kids” is a series of regular feature stories published in the Webster Parish Journal. If you have a recommendation of someone who needs to be recognized for their work with our local school children, please reach out to Josh Beavers either through Facebook or email at joshwbeavers@gmail.com.)
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