Playing their cards right in the game of life

By Gabriel Lagarde



Ho-Chunk kids spent a day at the crossroads of childhood and adulthood during the annual Financial Frenzy vs. Game of Life event held at Ho-Chunk Gaming in Nekoosa, June 22.
Children of all ages participated in an exercise of adult responsibilities. Organizers gave each child a check and a ledger while they navigated a series of tables and stands representing jobs, banks, colleges, healthcare, the military and other functions of life.
Tena Quakenbush, program manager at Family Services Program, said the day-long event is invaluable for Ho-Chunk children to make the right decisions when they go out into the world.
“This game is so important for our youth,” she said, “to guide them through the years before they get that money.”
The players were challenged to allocate their funds wisely throughout the course. While the players made their own choices and pursued what interested them, they also had to take into account practicalities like spouses and family sizes and uncertainties such as injuries or auto repair.
Robert Miles, an upcoming freshman from at Tomah High School, and Avery Lockman, an upcoming eighth-grader at Alexander Middle School in Nekoosa, both played the game and described it as fun.
Miles, who dreams of becoming a professional basketball player like Michael Jordan, said he was impressed most by the lessons in tribal history provided by older members of the Ho-Chunk nation.
“Our history, our language,” he said. “(They taught us) what to do, what not to do.”
A new development this year is the introduction of five “breakout sessions” or sit-downs with the students to discuss important issues they would face later in life. The kids spent time with the seven clan grandmothers to discuss Ho-Chunk values and the importance of culture. The other sessions concerned concepts including financial aid, credit scores, trust funds and insurance, Quackenbush said.
Lockman said he hopes to attend college and become a cast-iron welder at some point during his life. He said he thought his “experiences” with investing in the Game of Life were some of the most challenging and most interesting of the course.
“You have to invest your money in things you wouldn’t think you’d invest in,” he said, noting secondary education as an example of a surprising investment.
Both boys said they wanted to serve in the military as well, a choice they said was inspired by a number of relatives who had also served in the Miles and Lockman families.
Teenagers have a number of hurdles to overcome when they take the leap from childhood to adulthood, but Ho-Chunk kids have the added pressure of trust fund money, Quackenbush said.
Inexperience and ignorance can lead kids to make foolish decisions when thousands of dollars are suddenly at their disposal. Added to that, Ho-Chunk youth in their late teens and early twenties are active targets of many financial institutions and predators hounding their money.
“Does it complicate life? Absolutely!” Quackenbush said. “Unless the children are being taught from early on until they get that trust fund money, it can actually be detrimental in so many ways.”
Lessons in topics like money management, insurance and taxes, while a challenge for adults to fully grasp, may be one of the few means parents have to prepare their children to face such an intimidating responsibility.
“It is not easy, trying to get difficult points across to the youth in a simple way,” Quackenbush said.
Quckenbush said the issue of imparting these important lessons was one of the focuses during the many planning meetings between organizers leading up to the event.


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