WAL-MART PARTNERS WITH JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT IN STATEWIDE EFFORT

Do kids need to know that money does not grow on trees? Should they learn in elementary school how to budget? Do they need to understand why we pay taxes and how they are used? Well, Wal-Mart has answered “yes” to these questions by providing $25,000 to fund 37 JA classroom programs in three NJ elementary schools, impacting over 800 students. Wal-Mart has “adopted” three regional school programs: north, central and south Jersey in which 80 High School Heroes students will be teaching the JA curriculum to 740 elementary school students in 37 classrooms statewide.

The essay, “The Importance of Giving Back to the Community through Financial Literacy Education”, will be judged and winners selected and announced by Monday June 23, 2008. "At Wal-Mart, we want to ensure that our future leaders are prepared to face the necessary challenges for success. Junior Achievement of New Jersey's High School Heroes program does just that in providing high school students with the opportunity to teach and interact with elementary school students," says Jennifer Hoehn, Sr. Manager of Public Affairs, NJ and VT, Wal-Mart.

“Now more than ever, current economic conditions dictate a dire need for youth to possess financial literacy skills. With Wal-Mart as a business education partner, Junior Achievement (JA) is able to effectively address this pressing problem by giving high school students the tools needed to educate and inspire their neighborhood peers. We thank Wal-Mart for their generous support and Patrizia Zita, Kaufman Zita Group, for helping to establish this great partnership,” says Catherine Milone-Richards, President of Junior Achievement of New Jersey.

About HS Heroes

The JA-NJ High School Heroes program gives high school students the opportunity to volunteer with Junior Achievement at a local elementary school in New Jersey. JA’s activity-based financial literacy and work readiness programs are taught over the course of one school day. The program is a memorable community service project for the high school students who participate as volunteer role models. Programs are fun and easy to implement and all materials/lesson plans and training are provided by Junior Achievement.