Cyclone Basketball Players Help Ames Middle School Students Learn Credit Lessons

Kids are learning about money management and the importance of credit scores earlier these days.

Center Percy Gibson told an class on Thursday that he received his first check book recently, but hadn't balanced it yet. Mitchell Heyveld, 13, said he had a check book too. Heyveld learned to balance his in Carol VanWaardhuizen's family and consumer sciences class.

Gibson's visit was part of an annual credit lesson from . Bank officials came to the school for the ninth year as part of National Get Smart About Credit Day. And perhaps those lessons are paying off.

While bad credit has been part of the financial crisis that has shaken the nation, Ames may be an example of a community doing things the right way. Ames residents are among a group of Iowans whose credit scores are improving, following a national trend, and data from Experian shows that Ames, which is lumped in with Des Moines, moved up from having the 17^th best credit in the nation to 16^th in 2011.

If the event on Thursday is any evidence, the credit rating success may reflect that the Ames community takes good credit seriously and tries to instill sound financial instincts at a young age.

During the Ames Middle School lesson, Marta Codina, a Wells Fargo community banking president who is based in Des Moines, told students that no one should use a credit card to spend more money than they have.

Codina and Mark G. Linder, Wells Fargo Bank vice president and community banking district manager who is based in Ankeny, gave a short presentation on credit and then passed out a quiz.

Heyveld was one of a handful of students who had a checking account or their own debit card.

Cyclone Guard Scott Christopherson, a fifth-year finance major, said he didn't use a checkbook until he started college.

“It's not something I knew a whole lot about when I was your guy's age or even in high school,” Christopherson said. “It's something I learned a lot about since I got to college.”

Gibson and Scott Christopherson, also spoke briefly about their credit, but thankfully didn't have much bad news to share.

When it came time for questions all students really wanted to know was who would be most likely to hit a three-point shot. Christopherson answered it would be him.

It was VanWaardhuizen's first year participating in Wells Fargo's Hands on Baking program. Melvin Ejim and Aaron Law, also basketball players, visited another of VanWaardhuizen's classes later in the day.