Belmont Savings Bank Business Development Vice President Pam McKim has 40 years of experience in banking and 10 years of teaching financial literacy to area students.

BELLAIRE — With 40 years of experience in banking, Business Development Vice President at Belmont Savings Bank Pam McKim has provided countless area children the knowledge of financial literacy.

A Buckeye South graduate, McKim started her career at Security National Bank before working at Key Centurion. From there, she went to work at Bank One Belmont National — which was purchased by Sky Bank — and then Huntington Bank. After Huntington, she opened a DeNova Bank in St.Clairsville which was later bought out by Belmont Savings Bank.

Before becoming the VP of Belmont Savings Bank in 2020, she was a branch manager at the Bellaire location.

With her vast banking experience, McKim’s gone into countless area schools to teach the students the importance of financial literacy for the past 10 years.

“It’s huge to teach students financial literacy. I can remember when I got out of school, I didn’t really know what to do. I mean, it was up to your parents to basically teach you,” she said. “And especially for the kids that are going to college because they are bombarded with credit cards. They want everybody to just take a credit card. Explaining that to them is huge, because I can also see that they’re getting more education at home on this stuff, too, because when I started doing it, kids were kind of clueless on what to do.”

McKim said that because of the work she has been doing, the understanding of financial literacy is now part of the curriculum in the schools and she goes into all grades.

“It’s really cute, I find out that a lot of them have more common sense than people give them credit for, and I think that’s due to parenting and listening to what their parents are going through at home,” she said. “Things aren’t great right now, so I always end my thing with explaining that when they ask their parents for money and they tell them, ‘we can’t give it to you right now,’ it’s not because they don’t like them or want to be mean. It’s because they have financial obligations.”

McKim said she plays a budgeting game with the students where they pick out if they are going to rent, live with friends or stay at home. They also have to decide if they are going to buy a new or used car or use public transportation.

“They get to make all those decisions on their own – no right or wrong answers – but we use Smarties as money. So when your Smarties are gone, your money’s gone, and it’s kind of cute to see some of them halfway through be like ‘hey we don’t have any more Smarties.’ And I’m like, ‘well, we better go back and make some changes,'” McKim said. “It’s not like there’s a right or wrong answer. It’s just that you need to see what you can afford and what you can’t. The difference is your needs and wants.”

In addition to teaching the younger generation about financial literacy, McKim also speaks to various senior centers teaching them about different scams that target older residents.

“It’s huge to go into the senior centers because we’ve experienced, when we went there, that there were actual people there that were being scammed at that time,” she said. “And they’re embarrassed to say anything, and they shouldn’t be because these scammers are good. I mean, I think they could cure cancer if they really put their mind to it, but instead, they want to rip us off.”

She added that her goal is to have the residents understand that being scammed isn’t something to be ashamed of because it can happen to anybody.

And sometimes, McKim said, she has to convince residents they are being scammed.

“It’s an obligation of ours, actually, to educate the community on what’s going on – and especially with all the online stuff going on right now,” she said.

She added that her favorite part of the job is being able to play an active role in the community as well as be the person that the bank uses when giving back to the community.

“Giving back to the community is huge. And this bank right here, I’ve been fortunate. I’ve worked for good banks that did give back, but Belmont Savings Bank is the ultimate,” she McKim said. “They give back, and I get to be the person doing that. So that’s what’s great.”

She also gets to share in people’s milestone moments.

“I get to be able to be a part of somebody buying their first house, somebody buying their first car,” she said. “I know people that I had as clients back in the 80s that I am still friends with. It’s all about building relationships and trust.”