Chicopee High students learn financial realities of life
Date: 5/12/2010
May 12, 2010.By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
CHICOPEE -- Katelyn Woishnis and Thalia Ventura are both single mothers standing in line waiting to find out if they can get a part-time job to supplement their income.
Not really.
The two Chicopee High School 10th graders were shocked to find out just how much money they needed to survive as they participated in "The Reality Store" program last week.
Business teacher Robin Lussier, who brought the half-day exercise to the school, called it "the walking game of life."
Set up in the cafeteria, Lussier explained that each student was given an identity at random at the start of the day. She gave this reporter a sample that showed the person was a baseball player with a yearly income before taxes of $60,480 and a monthly income before taxes of $5,040. The player had four years of college and no spouse, but had one three-year-old child.
With a checkbook in hand loaded with his or her monthly income, each student then had to visit each of 13 stations that including employment, banking, housing, utilities, auto, insurance, groceries, cable services, childcare, health insurance and blood pressure, consumer products and services, travel and entertainment.
Each of the stations had a representative from that expense field to show the students how much money the person they were playing would have to pay for goods and services.
Businesses participating in the event included Aldenville Credit Union, Arnold's Meats, Bank of America, Career Point, Chicopee Electric Light Department, Chicopee Savings Bank, Jasin Advertising, Freedom Credit Union, Kelly Services, Lebel, Lavigne and Deady Insurance Agency, Lussier Insurance Agency, Marcotte Ford, PeoplesBank, Pioneer Valley Federal Credit Union, Polish National Credit Unions, TD Bank, The Arbor Kids and YMCA School Age Program.
On top of the regular expenses each student visited the "Finger of Fate" station, which gave them an unexpected expense.
The goal of "The Reality Store" was to teach the students how to successfully budget, Lussier explained.
She said that about an hour into the game, many of the students become "frantic." They go to the table set up to award second jobs and re-visit other tables to try to cut their expenses, Lussier said.
She added some students try to form communes to lower their cost of living and they even try to put their "children" up for adoption to eliminate that expense.
"They want to ditch the dog and the children," she said.
Woishnis, whose role included having three children, thought the game was "really good," but admitted dealing with costs of life was "stressful just thinking about it."
