Participants in the Credit Yourself: The Way
to Financial Fitness workshop series gathered
recently to celebrate the significant progress
they've made utilizing the knowledge and skills
the program has made available to them.

Funded by a $25,000 grant from the KeyBank
Foundation, it's part of a four-year nationwide
initiative that partners KeyBank with select non-
profit organizations such as Belmont Housing
Resources for WNY to promote economic self-
sufficiency and financial stability.

Celebration participants shown in the photo above include (clockwise from upper left) KeyBank Vice-
President Catherine Braniecki, Erin Rumsey, Joyce Faines, Denise Schutt, KeyBank Sr. Vice-President
Gary Quenneville, Erin Griffin, Irene Gangler, Latisha Petty, Tatyana Herczynski and Tamara Englert. 

Belmont began offering the workshops - which consist of four eight-hour classes focusing on such topics
as managing money and credit more effectively and setting personal financial goals - in August of 2008.
Since then, the program has been presented more than a dozen times in five different community loca-
tions, providing education on a wide range of personal finance-related topics to nearly 100 low- to mod-
erate-income participants.

Under the program, participants acquire enhanced financial skills that they use to pursue goals, ranging
from paying off credit cards and improving their credit scores to purchasing a home and starting a busi-
ness. Celebrating the fact that the program's current group has paid off debts collectively totaling more
than $11,000, the event presented a variety of awards personalized to reflect the recipients' individual
achievements, including the Debt Demolisher Award, the New Beginnings Award, the Conscientious
Credit User Award and the Independent Spirit Award.