A Challenge for Change to Change Lives

There’s a theory out there that little things can add up to something significant. I suppose it’s actually more than a theory. Grains of sand trickling through an hourglass can add up to hours, days, years, and eons. A small stream of water can eventually fill up a lake.

At any rate we’re going to put it to a test. We’re going to see if your pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters can add up to a significant start in this year’s United Way campaign.

And I am blatantly using this weekly space to promote something I am personally involved in by urging you to root around the house for the loose change that’s gathered, take it to your favorite Wells County financial institution where it will all be turned over to the United Way to support a long list of programs.

We’ve dubbed it “The Change Challenge.” A challenge to donate your change, which can change the lives of many people. It evolved in a series of discussions about how to kick off the annual United Way fund drive. We started with an idea from another United Way in which schools competed by seeing how many quarters the students could gather, and which school could produce the longest line of quarters.

But we wanted to involve a wider spectrum of the public ... and why limit ourselves to just the quarters? we wondered. “What if The News-Banner and Ossian State Bank had a contest to see who could raise the most quarters?” I asked Peter Confer who also serves on the campaign committee.

That became a discussion on who we target for the coins, which became the public. I felt Peter had an unfair advantage in that he has access to a fair amount of quarters. He thought I had an unfair advantage since I could print appeals like this. Since we each felt the other was unfair, we decided we’d better get more people involved.

While its fun to banter mock insults and jabs, it’s even more fun when brainstorming produces what everyone hopes to be a good idea: The News-Banner has challenged the county’s financial institutions to beg and badger their customers to bring in their loose change. If your favorite teller gets a little ambitious in their suggestions, understand that they’re competing for a prize: the office with the most coins gets a free ice cream treat. (The cost of which will not come out of the funds contributed ... all of that will go directly to the United Way campaign fund.)

The thought is that many of us have a coffee can or jar of small change that accumulates over time. Instead of leaving it gather dust on your dresser or in your closet, take it to Wells Fargo or National City or Markle Bank or Three Rivers Credit Union or First Bank of Berne or Farm Credit Services or Ossian State Bank, put it in the Change Challenge jar and know that even a little gift can add up to make a difference.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.