Welcome to reality!
More than 600 eighth graders from around Jackson County attended the Reality Fair on Dec. 6 at Seymour Middle School.
A Reality Fair is a simulation of an adult’s financial life that allows youth to experience making financial decisions and managing money. They can experience what it is like to manage an account at a financial institution, make money-related decisions, obtain a loan, manage debt and more. For the youth, a Reality Fair can be an eye-opening, exciting and fun way to build financial knowledge and skills.
After being assigned one of 18 different types of jobs, they visited 12 booths: Pets, health care, transportation, housing Part 1, housing Part 2, household spending, the unexpected, credit card, bank, sharing and charitable gifts, children and cellphone.
There were 68 volunteers from the community who manned the booths in both gyms to help students make decisions. There were three hour-and-a-half sessions.
This was the second year for the event. Last year, only SMS students attended. This year, they were joined by Brownstown Central, Crothersville, Medora, Immanuel Lutheran, St. John’s Sauers Lutheran, Lutheran Central and Sandy Creek Christian.
Thanks to all of the students and staff from each school who attended or helped with this event, SMS for hosting, all of the community volunteers for working at the booths and the Seymour High School Jobs for America’s Graduates students and specialists for assisting at the event. It takes everyone to make this a success.
Thanks to these volunteers who manned the booths…
Aisin USA Mfg. Inc.: Marnie Dirks
Beatty Insurance: Kevin Ude
Bee Mortgage App: Brittany Percival
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Indiana Realty: Cat Kick
Blue & Co.: Grace Otte, Carson Fleetwood, Karen Dringenburg, Debbie Herbert
Blueshift Marketing: Jaredith Mize
Boys & Girls Club of Seymour: Ryon Wheeler, Lara Wheeler, Tabitha Shepherd-Brooks, Bailey Lauster
Brownstown Veterinary Clinic: Mandy Michaels
Centra Credit Union: Jenni Carr, Tammy Hercamp, Sehrish Sangamkar, Madison Darlage
Central Security & Communications: David Lainhart
Child Care Network: Kate Garrity
City of Seymour: Chad Keithley, Matt Nicholson, January Rutherford, Allycen Wheeler, Tracey Cole
Cummins Seymour Engine Plant: Stacey Brummett, Dani Kareus
F.C. Tucker Real Estate Experts: Harley Wooten
Healthy Jackson County: Jena Hanks, Jenna Thomas
Integrity Mortgage Group: P.J. Stein, Michal Leah Bevers
JCBank: Amanda Pratt, Haley Pennington, Tanner Hawkins, Allison Vannarsdall, Samantha Canaday, Angie Martin
Jackson County Chamber: Sasha Sitterding
Jackson County government: Jeff Hubbard
Jackson County United Way: Maci Baurle, Stephanie Strothmann
JCIDC board: Amanda Lowery
Old National Bank: Amber Schrader, Zenda Brooks
Pet Supplies Plus: Tammy Barker, Tina Hacker, Yesenia Otero
Poynter Family of Dealerships: Skylar Prange
Royalty Companies: Kevin Gabbard, Jared Clark
Schneck Medical Center: Heidi Wheatley, Amy Hatton, Skylar Earley, Natalie Wiethoff
Seymour Animal Hospital: Amy Birk, Addyson Coomer
Shelter Insurance: Angie Hoevener
Shepherd Insurance: Jason Bukowski
SpaceGuard Products: Kathy England
The Carpet Gallery: Parker Wiethoff
Vincennes University: Brian Sawyers
Community members: Dee Kovener, Rexanne Ude, Susie Bowman, Dave Thompson, Catherine Horton, Stephanee Squires-Roberts