Spare change: High School Senior Finds $70,000 in Street,

Returns It to Bank, and Tells Story to Dave

A high school senior in Schenectady, N.Y., earned his 15 minutes of fame last week by returning a sack of cash he found in front of a Trustco Bank branch.

Joseph Loveland noticed the gray canvas bag-which held $70,000-after leaving work at a nearby retail store last Wednesday.

The bag had fallen out of an armored truck during a pickup earlier that evening. Instead of running off with the cash, the 18-year-old promptly returned the money to a Trustco employee.

His good deed was documented on television stations and newspapers in upstate New York. A few days later the bank gave Mr. Loveland $1,000 to say thanks.

"We wanted to reward his honesty," said William Terry, senior vice president of $2.2 billion-asset Trustco Bank.

Brinks Security, the operator of the armored truck, has also indicated it plans to give Mr. Loveland a reward, Mr. Terry said.

But the biggest prize may have come on Monday night, when Mr. Loveland appeared on CBS' "The Late Show." He was interviewed by one of his heroes, the show's host, David Letterman. - Louis Whiteman

About 2,500 bankers went to the front of the class Thursday to teach kids the virtues of saving money.

The bankers' lessons were part of the second annual "Teach Children to Save Day" of the American Bankers Association Educational Foundation. The idea is that getting kids started in elementary school will eventually help raise the national savings rate.

The foundation, a not-for-profit arm of the ABA, sold lesson plans and teaching aids to the bankers for $20 each. But some banker-teachers went beyond the work sheets and coloring book.

Gail Winningham, special projects coordinator at New Richmond (Ohio) National Bank, produced a video about saving to broadcast on closed-circuit television in four area elementary schools. Included are testimonials from children who participate in New Richmond's in-school savings program and a puppet show starring Quincy Squirrel, the ABA's cartoon savings guru.

Ms. Winningham, the puppeteer, said the production was an ambitious undertaking for her $50 million-asset bank.

"The video isn't state-of-the-art," she said, "but hopefully it gets the point across that it's good to save." - Laura Pavlenko Lutton

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