Coins are scarce inside the modern American piggy bank.

But they shouldn't be, banker R. Scott Smith Jr. told 20 kindergartners at Pequea Elementary School outside Willow Street on Tuesday morning.

He held up a bank made out of a glass jar for all to see.

"A penny doesn't like to be by herself," Smith explained. "We put the nickel in there and the penny has a friend." The money made a satisfying clink.

Rainy days and the cost of living being what they are, you can never have too many friends.

Planting the savings idea early is vital, said Smith, the chairman, chief executive officer and president of Fulton Financial Corp.

Smith visited JoLynn Drexel's class at the Penn Manor school as part of the American Bankers Association's National Teach Children to Save Day.

According to Fulton communications manager Laura J. Wakeley, he was one of 45 Fulton executives to spread the word to about 1,400 pupils, kindergarten through fifth grade, at eight Lancaster County schools.

Other banks also took part.

The program started a decade ago and now involves some 10,000 bankers nationwide. But the idea of putting aside money is timeless, if scarily neglected these days.

In February, the Associated Press reported that Americans on average spent every cent they earned last year and then borrowed more to cover purchases.

Personal savings sagged to their lowest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"It's alarming, some of the statistics out there," Smith said. "People just do not discipline themselves to save."

And that wasn't the only alarming thing.

Smith, a father of five who is at ease speaking to Wall Street's finest, nevertheless admitted to some trepidation at the thought of going to the head of the class.

The night before his presentation, he said, he placed a distress call to his daughter, who is pursuing a master's degree in education.

"I said, 'What should I

do?' " the banker recalled with a laugh.

He started out by going over some financial ABCs.

The kids sat cross-legged on the floor while rainbow-hued mobiles swirled overhead. An array of small hands shot up eagerly each time Smith posed a question.

"My piggy bank is almost full," one boy offered. Other pupils said their "piggy" banks were actually shaped like elephants, snails and basketballs. Yet another child trumped even those.

"You have what?" asked Scott in surprise. "A safe? Wow, you have lots of pennies!"

The kids had well-defined notions of the stuff their savings could buy. A house, said one. Shoes chimed in another. Books.

But whether you should blow all the money you get for your birthday on one purchase, for example, was less clear.

Some kids thought that was a good idea while others were more cautious. Smith recommended salting some of it away in a real bank with a real vault.

"It has a big steel door on it so you can lock it up at night and it's all safe," he said. Then there's the matter of interest.

"The bank adds a little more" to the principal, he explained. More friends. More security.

Wakeley said Fulton is seeking to reinforce its personal savings message by visiting schools four or five times a year.

In the fall, she added, the bankers will be back to teach high school-age students about credit programs.

"You are seeing a trend for very young adults to have very high debt," she said.

Still, Smith summed up after kindergarten class, the younger kids seem to be starting out on the right foot.

"They were good. They got it."

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Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News.  His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
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