April is Financial Literacy Month!

It's also National Jazz Appreciation Month, National Fresh Celery Month, Foot Health Awareness Month, World Landscape Architecture Month, and National Soft Pretzel Month. But let's just stick to finance for now, a topic that affects us all throughout the year. And for a refresher on that topic, we met up with our local bank branch manager, Samantha Awand-Gortel, for a conversation on banking and finance in the Catskills and beyond.

Did we mention April is also National Poetry month? Hey, ChatGPT, how about a limerick on financial literacy to get us started?

There once was a person named Jill
Who never learned to manage her bill
But with financial literacy in hand
She could finally understand
And now she's financially fit and chill!

It's no Carolyn Wells, but honestly, financial literacy poetry is hard to find.

Pictured: Ulster Savings Bank Phoenicia branch manager Samantha Awand-Gortel, with a poster by some appreciative (and financially literate) Phoenicia Elementary Schoolers.

Many thanks to our sponsors:

The Mountain Eagle, Central Catskills Chamber of Commerce, and Briars & Brambles Books