Event Highlights

Benjamin Bankes Pennsylvania Summer Tour

Scott Myers and Jennifer Redick with Feed the Pig mascot, Benjamin Bankes, at the Radio Disney Move It! summer tour event at South Hills Village Mall. More photos.

The Feed the Pig financial literacy campaign has made 340 million media impressions nationwide through radio, TV, and print media since its launch last fall. PICPA is halfway through a busy summer of special events with Benjamin Bankes, the program’s mascot, promoting the campaign’s crucial financial literacy message.

Members of the Greater Philadelphia and Pittsburgh chapters distributed free Feed the Pig items at LOVE Park and Mellon Square, respectively, in June. More than 2,000 vinyl lunch bags and several hundred lanyards and stress pigs were given out to those passing through the parks. Many posed for photographs with Benjamin. At Mellon Square, the event generated enough buzz to land a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review photographer.

Parents of young children at the South Hills Village Mall in Pittsburgh learned about the Feed the Pig campaign through PICPA’s involvement in Radio Disney’s “Move It!” summer tour. The tour, which encourages children ages 6-14 to embrace a healthy lifestyle, stopped at the mall in July. PICPA members Scott W. Myers and Jennifer Redick distributed “Hey Kids: Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees” brochures and spoke about the campaign’s message, while Benjamin Bankes posed for photographs with children and parents.

Myers, Pittsburgh Chapter’s president, provided an interview with Radio Disney, that was broadcast throughout much of the mall. Myers enjoyed his experience and believes the message of savings is resonating with the public.

“One person approached me and said she teaches her children to ‘feed the pig’ in four different sections,” Myers said. “One section is for long-term goals, such as spending money for a vacation; another for unexpected events, like when a friend calls and wants to go to a movie; another for short-term goals, like buying a new video game; and one for charity.”

If you know of an event happening near you where Benjamin could participate, or you’d like to volunteer at one of the events above, let us know.