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Mary Kerwin uses her motivational skills as a cross-country coach to teach students to save money. |
Whether it is running to get in better physical shape or
saving money to get in better financial shape, motivation and a lack of realistic
goals can lead people to give up.
But not if Mary Kerwin, who coached high school
cross-country for over a decade in the Plymouth-Canton school district, is
around.
Last year a colleague, Helen Miller-Padden, sought Mary’s
help in training for a 5k race.. They
agreed to meet once a week at 7 a.m. to run.
However, before they started, Helen offered Mary her cell number in case she couldn’t make it as
scheduled.
“I told her I didn’t need it,’” Kerwin remembered. “I told her ‘Unless someone is dying at my
house, I’ll be here and there’s no reason you shouldn’t too.’”
Some might call that tough love, but it worked for Kerwin
and her trainee as they ran every week and Miller-Padden went on to complete her
first 5k race.
Throughout her coaching career, Kerwin achieved success by
preaching planning, setting achievable goals and taking measured steps to
achieve those goals.
“It’s like drawing a map on how to get from point A to point B,” she
said. “You have to have a plan.”
Kerwin also works
at Community Financial as an Educational Partnership Coordinator with the
student-run credit union program that helps students learn good financial
habits early in life.
“We teach them the basics of how to save and make smart
decisions and then hopefully they’ll be Community Financial members for life,”
she said. “We want to show them the right way then hopefully have them do it on
their own.”
And Kerwin knows, just like training to run a 5K or a
marathon, saving money is about setting achievable goals and taking the steps
necessary to reach them.
“As
a coach, you teach people that doing something is always better than doing
nothing,” Kerwin said. “Some people may
say, ‘I was only able to run one mile or two miles, or I was only able to save
$1 or $2.’ But doing something is always
better than nothing.”
To learn
more about the student run credit unions, click here. To speak with one of our
Community Financial team members on how to develop plans for other financial
goals, visit http://www.cfcu.org.
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