BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Keystone Heights High School students participated in the school’s Reality Check on Thursday, November 20, in the school’s gym.
The event simulates budgeting in adult life by assigning each student an occupation and income, then having them walk to stations throughout the gym floor to arrange other expenses.
Event organizer Isaac Morford said this is his third year running Reality Check.
“It’s kind of a snapshot of what it’s like to be an adult and organize your finances,” he said. “It gives them an idea of costs and how things play out in the adult world.”
Morford said one table is labeled “Chance” based on the Monopoly Game cards.
“You draw a card and could find out that your car breaks down, and you owe $100, or you got a bigger tax refund than you were expecting,” he said.
Volunteer organizer Ginger Lee said that this year, around 30 community members and 570 students signed up for the event. The winner of Capital City Bank’s 2023 Julian V. Smith Community Involvement Award added that students this year are writing out checks for their expenditures, adding a new wrinkle to life in the real world.
“I’m enjoying it,” said volunteer Helen Lavarnway, who is the community advocate and event planner at the Keystone Heights RV Resort. “I think the volunteers enjoy working with the students, teaching them about life and how to budget.”
Kimberly Dyal and Elaine Alsabrook of Clay Electric volunteered at the utilities table.
The pair said that after students draw their occupation and income, they arrange their housing, and then come to the utilities table to get electricity.
Costs ranged from $0, for a one-bedroom apartment with utilities included to $275 for a three-bedroom home.
The co-op employees added that, when faced with the cost of power, two students responded, “I don’t need this,” and walked away from the table.
Morford warned students against taking similar shortcuts when getting transportation.
“If you get a car,” he warned them, “you’d better get insurance, and you’d better get a tag on it. If you don’t, then you might get pulled over and lose another hundred bucks or so.”
Morford also told participants that if they get into difficulty, they could go to the SOS Table for help.
Brent Bathurst, a tax principal at the Jacksonville CPA firm of Ennis Pellum & Associates, and a Keystone Heights Rotary member, volunteered at the retirement table.
He said one student bolted for his station before budgeting for other expenses.
“He told me, ‘I need to save for my future before anything else,’” the CPA recalled. “He wasn’t even looking at early retirement. He just knew that (planning for retirement was important). Obviously, his parents had been teaching him.”
Next to Bathurst’s table, Keystone Heights Mayor Nina Rodenroth helped students acquire furniture.
She said she had to show students how to write out checks.
“You could tell most of them had not had that training yet,” she said, adding that she only writes two checks a month herself, instead paying most bills online.
“I think I write a check to the yard guy and the housekeeper, and that’s about it,” she said.
Rodenroth added that if she sees a student running low on funds, she advises them to downsize their housing.
“Just giving them little tips,” she said.
