It's tough to pick the best gift for the little ones on a Christmas list.
But thanks to a partnership between the Lapeer County Community Foundation, ELGA Credit Union, the Lapeer County Intermediate School District, and the county's school districts, the best gift might be an investment into their future.
The LEAF Program, or Lapeer Education Attainment Fund, is a children's saving account program designed to facilitate the saving of money throughout a student's K-12 experience, and anyone can contribute to a student's account.
Now in its fourth year, every Lapeer County kindergartener and first- to third-grade student has the chance to start saving money for post-secondary education as part of the LEAF program.
Each year, the program adds incoming kindergarteners as well as continues the program with the older cohorts.
When that occurs, the total number of LEAF accounts will grow to just shy of 3,700.
Nancy Boxey, executive director of the LGA Credit Union branch, says it's easy for grandparents or other relatives to contribute.
They can either make a deposit into a student's account by visiting any ELGA Credit Union branch or they can set up a direct deposit.
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Caroline Diehl is a serial social entrepreneur in the impact media space. She is Executive Chair and Founder of the UK’s only charitable and co-operatively owned national broadcast television channel Together TV, the leading broadcaster for social change runs a national TV channel in the UK and digital platform which helps people find inspiration to do good in their lives and communities.