MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — WECU is reporting it was able to turn its sponsorship of the 2026 Skagit County Fair into an interactive financial education program that drew more than 800 children, distributed more than 4,000 pieces of custom currency and resulted in more than 1,400 prizes being purchased during the four-day event, according to the credit union.
Rather than relying on a traditional sponsorship booth with promotional materials and giveaways, the $3.4-billion WECU said it developed its Money Adventure program to combine financial education, community giving and brand engagement in an experience designed specifically for children.
“We wanted to show up at the fair, but we didn’t want to just show up,” Keith Mader, WECU’s director of public relations and communications, said in a statement. “We wanted to create something that people would actually seek out and remember. If we could use that experience to teach kids about money and giving back at the same time, even better.”
Four Financial Concepts
WECU developed Money Adventure around four financial concepts: earning, saving, spending and giving.
The credit union partnered with the Children’s Museum of Skagit County, which used its experience developing hands-on children’s programs to turn WECU’s concepts into fair-themed activities.
According to WECU (an abbreviation for Whatcom Educational CU), children arriving at the Money Adventure Zone received small WECU wallets bearing the words “Save. Spend. Give.”
They could then visit six Adventure Stops where they earned WECU’s custom currency, called “Moola,” by participating in activities including piggy bank races, estimating the number of eggs in jars, playing a carnival-style slingshot game, searching through corn for coins totaling $1 and tossing balls into milk jugs.
‘Tangible Connection’
The activities were intended to give children a tangible connection between completing a task and earning money, according to WECU.
Participants could take their Moola to the Money Adventure store and decide how to spend it. Prizes included sticky hands, bouncy balls, candy, piggy banks and board games.
The Children’s Museum provided much of the prize inventory.
“The museum really knows kids,” Mader said. “We knew we wanted a store, but they took it to another level. The variety of prizes made the whole thing feel like a real experience for the kids.”
WECU said the approach was also consistent with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidance that foundational financial attitudes and skills begin developing during early childhood, while financial habits and norms take shape during middle childhood. The CFPB has emphasized hands-on, age-appropriate activities as a way for children to develop financial skills.
Adventure Extended Across Fairgrounds
WECU said it also designed the program to take children and their families beyond the credit union’s primary area.
Three additional Adventure Stops were placed around the fairgrounds at the petting zoo, Birds of Prey exhibit and model train display. Children completed trivia challenges based on what they observed at those attractions.
WECU said the strategy made the program more of an adventure while also extending the credit union’s presence beyond its primary activation area.
The credit union’s broader visibility strategy included a presence at both fair entrances and three additional high-traffic locations, as well as mentions in the fair program, advertising and social media. A WECU representative also spoke over the microphone on the fair’s main stage at one point.
Two WECU employees staffed the Money Adventure experience throughout the fair.
Multiple Reasons for Interaction
WECU said its objective was not simply to generate impressions but to give families multiple reasons to interact with the credit union.
The Moola system created a cycle in which children could earn the currency, return to the WECU area, make a spending decision, participate in another activity and earn additional Moola.
More than 800 children received wallets over the four days, more than 4,000 Moola were distributed and more than 1,400 prizes were purchased, WECU said.
Among the participants was a group of 4-H members who were at the fair throughout the week and pooled their Moola to purchase a collection of sticky hands. They planned to tie them together in an attempt to create what they called the “biggest sticky hand in the world.”
“We had kids who were showing goats, sheep and pigs and then coming over to earn Moola,” Mader said. “They were making decisions about money, but they were also just having fun. That’s what made it work.”
Giving Becomes Part of the Lesson
WECU also incorporated charitable giving into Money Adventure by allowing children to use their Moola to vote for one of three local nonprofits: the Humane Society of Skagit County, Boys & Girls Clubs of Skagit County or Helping Hands Food Bank.
WECU pledged to donate $1,000 to the organization receiving the most votes.
Helping Hands Food Bank won with 262 votes, followed by the Humane Society with 241 and Boys & Girls Clubs with 239.
WECU said the voting gave children another financial decision to make while showing how their choices involving money could affect their community.
“Giving was important to us because we didn’t want the whole experience to be about getting a prize,” Mader said. “We wanted kids to understand that money can do something for someone else, too.”
Rethinking Event Sponsorship
WECU said Money Adventure was developed specifically for the Skagit County Fair rather than as a standard sponsorship program that could be replicated unchanged at other events.
The broader strategy, however, was to shift the focus of sponsorship from how much exposure a credit union receives to what it can create that people will actively want to participate in.
WECU said that approach allowed its sponsorship to become an experience, the experience to provide financial education and the financial education to create opportunities for families to engage with the credit union while also supporting the community.
‘We Think We Should Look Different’
“Being a credit union means we’re member-owned and not-for-profit,” Mader said. “We think that should look different in the community. We don’t want to just put our name on something. We want to invest in the places where our members live and make the communities we’re part of better.”
