Changing the Odds

Shelly Campbell runs a day care. “For twenty years, I wished for better outdoor play equipment. I thought that day would never come, but I was wrong, and my dream came true.” - Campbell

Her wish list is now complete. What she thought might take 20 years, only took three.

In 2009, Shelly heard about Salem-Keizer CDC’s Individual Development Account program. She thought it was hard to believe that if she started saving a little, she could end up with a 3 to 1 match. She dug in, and was determined to save enough money to bring her Childcare equipment up to higher standards. “Prospective clients would be so excited about our curriculum and our indoor space, but when they saw the backyard, sometimes I would lose them.”

Now her backyard has colorful, strong equipment for the kids to play on and share. There’s a long green metal picnic table for lunches and outside projects, a yellow slide, and blue swings. Her prized possession is a science table complete with inlaid magnifiers, and tools to help quench the thirst for knowledge of her small charges.

Shelly’s philosophy is to teach the pre-schoolers that they can satisfy their own curiosity by searching out answers as a group and sharing their new-found knowledge. The new equipment has given her program more than just metal and plastic. She has shared each step of her savings journey with her kids and taught them that saving up for something important can be very rewarding. “Wow, said one of her morning kids, I have 12 cents! If I save up to $25.00, I could go to Toys R Us!” This is a lesson she learned for herself and for her own 5 children as well. "I grew up with very little, if we had $10.00 to spend, we spent it, and never saved. I was impatient and impulsive so the idea of saving was foreign to me,” she said.

Now Shelly Campbell has learned that if you start with even a little in savings, and you are persistent, your account can grow quickly. “I have always been a big fan of breaking things in to manageable steps and this has helped me to see that savings can also be done this way,” she said. Her advice is common, but so meaningful to her: Don’t Give Up!

Although she has accomplished her goal and graduated from SKCDC’s program, she will not stop saving. She has learned the value of putting a little away each week, and she now has a “rainy day” fund – just in case. Maybe even more importantly, she has taught her own children and her childcare children the power of managing money properly.

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