Hiway Federal Credit Union® (Hiway) was honored with a visit from Saint Paul Mayor Melvin Carter during a monthly associate meeting. The mayor was introduced by three St. Paul high school students, all of whom are currently employed at Hiway through the City of St. Paul’s Right Track program.
At the meeting, Mayor Carter gave a brief overview of his vision for St. Paul, building a city that works for all of us, and he described his strategies to realize this vision in three core “pillars.” The first, Public Safety, he described as driving a community first approach by focusing on investing in creating healthy and whole communities; providing libraries and rec centers as safe havens for our youth; and building trust and respect between our neighborhoods and our police officers. The second pillar is Lifelong Learning, ensuring that families and children are on a path through education for a brighter future. Mayor Carter’s third pillar, Economic Justice and Inclusion, means working to eliminate the barriers that are keeping people from participating in our economy through a focus on improving transit, early childhood and childcare issues, financial education and more.
Mayor Carter also talked about his recently announced College Savings Account (CSA) initiative, and thanked Hiway’s leadership for their involvement in the task force to help build the program.
The goal of the CSA is to put $50 in a College Savings account for every child born in St. Paul to give them a start on the pathway to higher education. The idea, said Mayor Carter, is to say to our young people that “we believe in you enough to invest in you.”
“Hiway’s mission is to provide our members with financial success on the road of life and our vision extends to serving our community, promoting lifelong financial wellness and success,” said Dave Boden, Hiway’s President/CEO and a member of the CSA Task Force. “Our efforts as a credit union align very closely with the Mayor’s vision and we are honored to participate and help shape the CSA initiative for the future of St. Paul’s
youth.”
Mayor Carter ended with a thank you to Hiway for all of its involvement in St. Paul, including Right Track, Hiway’s financial education efforts in the schools, and supporting community events.
“I see your blue shirts everywhere,” he remarked.
Bill Wagner, Vice President of Business Development; Mayor Melvin Carter; Tina jones, Community Outreach Administrator and Dave Boden, President/CEO; along with Hiway’s Right Track student interns.