DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit-based financial literacy program for children is calling on the community for help as a once-in-a-lifetime educational trip to Washington, D.C., is in jeopardy.
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Money Matters for Youth needs to raise $20,000 after losing a key sponsor for their June 17 trip to the nation's capital, where students are scheduled to meet with legislators and visit the Supreme Court.
"There's needs versus wants. We need funding to make sure this trip happens. We already have opportunity in DC, we've just got to get to DC," said Gail Perry-Mason, founder of Money Matters for Youth.
The organization will host a fundraiser on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Hunt Street Station in Detroit, where students will collect community donations to help cover the costs.
Perry-Mason founded the program nearly 30 years ago after noticing a lack of diversity in financial summer camps featured in the Wall Street Journal.
"Nobody that went to the camp looked like people I know in Detroit, like my sons," she said.
Her program now offers opportunities such as summer camps, teaching Detroit area students about budgeting, investing, and other financial skills.
"We taught them etiquette, we taught them how to invest, we talked to them about the stock market," Perry-Mason said.
Students involved in the program say the financial education they receive is invaluable.
"It teaches me that I need to start saving, start doing compound interest, making sure everything is good so I'm set for the rest of my life," said Jerimiah Young, a participant with Money Matters for Youth.
Another participant, Zion Dolly, emphasized the program's broader impact: "It's good to watch the money in the world, understand the economy because that's how the world operates, and that's kind of what Money Matters teaches you."
For the students, the Washington D.C. trip represents an opportunity to engage with national leaders.
"This helps us get your problems to someone larger than us, someone larger than the city councilwoman, larger than the mayor. Someone who is a part of Congress," Young said.
Perry-Mason hopes the community will support their efforts: "If you make more deposits in life than withdrawals, you'll never be in the negative. Make deposits into our youth."
The community can also support Money Matters for Youth by visiting their website.
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