A camp full of fun... and finance?

By Susie Cohen
West Austin News
June 24, 2010

While other teens were at camp creating crafts or honing their sports skills this summer, my son, Jake, was (sometimes even gladly) going to work.

“Because we’re at a business camp and we’re learning how to run a business,” he explained pretty matter of factly, as he helped his camper do-workers set up one of the shops they created from the ground up at West Austin’s Waterloo Ice House.

“We sell bracelets, necklaces and trinkets,” he mentions.

They also created a design-your- own T-shirt stand for kids. What’s more, is their real products could lead to some real profits for these young (8 to 18-year-old) entrepreneurs. It’s all part of the plan at Money Academy Camp.

“Our slogan is Real Life- Real Money,” says Money Academy founder and CEO Gayle Reaume, who drew on her own experiences as a mom worried about her daughter’s financial future to create this unique kind of camp that’s going on in 20 different locations around town.

“Six years ago I wanted to teach my daughter about money and didn’t know how,” recalls Reaume. “I didn’t want her to get stuck in the money trap. It’s an earn-and-spend cycle that Americans are stuck in. We’re in a culture of consumption that causes the crisis we’re in.”

Back then, Reaume’s cure for that culture of consumption was an afterschool finance class she provided to her daughter and some of her daughter’s friends. What she learned from those kids and that class helped the former marketing and publishing worker found and grow the Money Academy she hoped would help improve the financial future for so many children like her daughter.

Her focus, she says, is, ”to help them see the value of saving 10 percent and using it to invest.”

But it’s the hands-on approach of the Money Academy (camp and curriculum, which is being incorporated into classes across Central Texas) that sets these lessons apart.

“We don’t teach. They learn,” says Reaume.” They see things for themselves in camp like how these principles work and they’re motivated to begin the habit of learning to save and invest.

Jake’s camper/co-workers were no exception. After taking turns at CEO, CFO, operations, marketing, and production of their company, his team ticked off some of the lessons they’d learned here at camp.

“If you have a job and you make money, you don’t just spend it. You put it in a savings account and it’ll make money for you,” said 14-year old Tyler Roach.

“To run even a small business like this you have to take on big responsibilities,” adds 14-year-old Jennifer Scheurer.

And all that hard work can also bring in big rewards is the lesson I witnessed for myself when Jake happily showed me a check for his percentage of the profits his team made during their week of camp.

While he still hasn’t decided what he’ll do with his earnings, he does know he’d like to return to Money Academy Camp (maybe even as a kid counselor)— and would recommend it to friends as well.

“Because you have fun and make money,” says Jake. After all, he adds, “Every kid likes to make money doesn’t he?”

West Austin News