Learning to manage money... The fun way!

Upon entering Chick’s Burgers in Baldwin, Tuesday, the greeting on the chalk board to the right of the door read, “Today is the day to do something great. Welcome to Chicks.”
Tuesday was the day for it, to be sure. That was the day Community of Friends met at Chick’s for their Valentines lunch and monthly get together.
However, COF Founder Jennifer Collins-Lanceslin had prepared something special for this Valentines lunch.
She gifted each of the program’s participants with their own calculator and a $10 budget.
They were given menus and told that they could order their lunches after calculating the cost of their meal, including tax, to stay under the budgeted $10.
One-by-one, participants and their caregivers approached the counter, after plotting out their choices according to cost and means, and made their orders.
It was a real-time, real world exercise in money management.
If the smiles were any indication, the exercise was a success.
“The whole idea,” Collins-Lanceslin said, “was to give them (participants) a life-skills lesson in budgeting. So, they budgeted a Valentines lunch for $10. They have experienced coming to a restaurant, making their order and paying for their order while having a wonderful and relaxing time in a beautiful atmosphere,” she said, gesturing to the Valentines décor in the dining room.
The lunch had also been made possible with the help of Chick’s Owner Tricia Mestayer, who Collins-Lanceslin said assisted with the idea’s implementation, and who took all the orders with the help of staff, and presented participants with Valentines gift bags for dessert.
COF usually meets on the second Tuesday of every month at the Baldwin Branch Library, but this Tuesday was an exception.
Collins-Lanceslin said her inspiration is that she always felt like “there is so much we can do, and I just want to be that person.
“It doesn’t take a lot. It just takes the willingness to do whatever you can do.”
COF is always accepting donations as they are a non-profit organization.
Donations can be sent to: Community of Friends Incorporated, PO Box 316, Baldwin, LA, 70514.
The next COF event is March’s Motorcade and Walk of Love/Community Resource, Health and Career Fair to be held on the 12th.
The motorcade and Walk of Love will begin at 10 a.m. on Main Street in Baldwin and will end at the intersection of Chitimacha Trail and Martin Luther King Street.
The Community Resource, Health and Career Fair will begin immediately following the Walk of Love and will be held at Baldwin Community Center from 10:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
The event is open to the public and is in celebration of March as Developmental Disability Awareness Month.
For more information, contact COF at: communityoffriends2014@yahoo.com or call Jennifer Collins-Lanceslin at 337-346-1006 or call Janice B. Mitchell at 337-940-2792.
Collins-Lanceslin thanked the public for all its support and closed with, “It doesn’t matter how little you give, our hearts are big and receiving.”