As a business owner and insurance agent, Gail Benner of Wimberley wanted to instill in the youth of her community something very important: The value of saving money and what it can mean for their future. She believes that it's very important to teach our youth the value of saving money at an early age.

Through a unique concept called the "Kids Market", in which children setup and manage a booth to sell crafts, food or repriced items, Gail has developed an active learning environment for local youth. For the past seven months, she has been teaching children, ages 6 to 13 years old, in her area about how to market and merchandise products, count change (without using a calculator), make a profit, and then save some of that profit. "I think it is a fun way for these children to learn. It's just one of the many ways that I learned about the value of money, and saving it," says Gail Benner.

Although the primary good of the program is to teach children to save money, the kids also learn the value of earned income. What they have to do in order to earn a dollar and how did they close the sale. She takes time to teach them about her own experiences. Gail's hope is that she can teach them valuable life lessons so that they can work towards becoming financially secure by age 55, and understand that they can make an independent living outside of the corporate world.