Shea, a Wilmington Trust employee, was one of 451 Delaware bankers who visited 95 schools throughout the state Tuesday to promote the importance of savings to about 12,000 children, mostly second-, third- and fourth-graders. The event was the annual Teach Children to Save Day sponsored by the Delaware Bankers Association and the University of Delaware's Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship.

Among all the classroom visits, Shea's lesson was unusual because it was delivered in sign language to students at the Delaware School for the Deaf in Ogletown.

Shea's daughter, Lauren, was a student at the school for 18 years and is now a college student at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where she's set to graduate next month with a degree in biotechnology. Shea, of Newark, said she and her family began learning sign language when Lauren was an infant.

Although her daughter has graduated, Shea remains active at the school, which is also known as the Sterck School in honor of Margaret S. Sterck, believed to be Delaware's first teacher of deaf children.

Shea volunteers as a mentor to a 14-year-old girl at the school. She returns annually to deliver the lesson.

"The children are always fascinated that my daughter went here and that she's now in college," Shea said. "I want them to think, 'I can do that, too.' "

Shea did much of the sign language herself, but teachers also stepped in to provide translation to the dozen students while she was reading from a book and passing out materials, including an activity booklet with games promoting savings. Shea read to them from "Bunny Money," a book about a rabbit named Max who squanders his dollars on frivolous items, including "glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth."

"They see Kathy sign and that's very important to them because it shows a commitment to communicate," said Claudia Bock, a third-grade teacher at the school. "Anytime somebody makes the effort to sign, it's wonderful. The kids get very excited about it."

The school uses the Total Communication method of sign language, which incorporates voice, signing and expressions to communicate.

Shea, who works in Wilmington Trust's Hockessin branch, highlighted the long-term benefits of savings, telling the students that money her family saved helped pay for her daughter's education.

"You know what I saved for? College," she said.

Mary Hicks, a math teacher at the school, said she considers it critical that her students be educated about money matters.

"I think it's great that we spend a day on savings and money," the teacher said. "This gives me a lot to follow up on with the classes."

Bonnie Meszaros, one of the organizers of Teach Children to Save Day, said the statewide effort is aimed at combating the growing problem of insufficient savings. The national savings rate in 2005 was negative, meaning that Americans spent more than they earned, according to U.S. Commerce Department data.

"We've gotten away from teaching kids the ethic of savings," said Meszaros, associate director of the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship. "We want to start early, teaching the importance of savings."

By Ted Griffith
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060426/BUSINESS/604260339/-1/NEWS01