Chester County 4-H’er Wins State Fair Queen Competition New Pennsylvania Fair Queen is Julie Sollenberger from Spring City. Students: Beware Of The Credit Card Trap HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) Perhaps it was a back pack, shiny and new, or a trendy T-shirt “sign here,” they’d taunt, “take two.” The promise of flight tickets for free, and a credit card to boot. Credit card companies can be seen at nearly every college cam puts. Luring students with free bies and cool refreshments, cam pus credit card hawkers now claim a healthy chunk of the un dergraduate market at four-year colleges, according to a study last by Consumer o( America (CFA) (www.consu merfed.org). The privilege of membership has its price. Burdened by credit card debt, many college students are struggling with heavy finan cial and emotional stress, CFA reports. About 70 percent of under graduates at four-year colleges possess at least one credit card. “Revolvers,” or those who don’t pay off their credit card bills each month, carry debts on these cards that average more than $2,000 with annual interest rates as high as 20 percent. One-fifth of the students sur veyed for the CFA report were carrying card debt of more than $lO,OOO. Some debt was refin anced with student loans or with private debt consolidation loans. Many of those students carrying Maple Syrup Facts In late winter and early spring, maple producers collect sap from maple trees-especially sugar ma ples and black maples. A metal spout is tapped into the maple tree with a hammer. The maple producer then hangs a bucket on the spout to catch the golden sap the biggest debt were from low or moderate-income families. The study also reveals how ag gressive, seductive, and effective the marketing efforts of credit card issuers have become. “Establishing a line of credit is critical to your future buying power,” they said. “No need to carry a balance. You’ll pay it off monthly, incurring no finance charge,” they promised, sweeten ing the pitch with super-sized sodas. With little more than a bicycle, books and a .pending degree to claim as assets, students can be approved for a card with a limit of $l,OOO or more. When the card arrives in the mail, it is immediately tucked away for emergencies. Within two weeks, emergency evolves into convenience. Students begin charging gasoline, meals, and clothing. Even with cash in hand, some will use the card instead because it seems less damaging to charge than break a $2O. Before long, students reach the ceiling of their credit limit and enter the minimum balance pay ment zone but it isn’t until post graduation that they break out of it. Indebtedness prompts some students to drop out of school, and a handful to more painful crises, the CFA reports. “The unrestricted marketing that begins to drip from the tree. The sap can be collected until just before the tree buds begin to expand, usually in late March or early April. Some days a lot of sap may flow from the tree and other days none at all. It depends upon the weather. Each maple tree produces six to 10 gallons of sap, but believe it or not, it takes about 10 gallons of sap to produce one quart of syrup! To make syrup the sap must be boiled to remove the water it con tains. HERSHEY (Dauphin Co.) The Kimberton Community Fair announces the selection of its local fair queen contestant Julie Sollenberger as the 2001 Pennsyl vania State Fair Queen during the Pennsylvania State Associa tion of Community Fairs Annual Convention. Julie is the daughter of Dave and Holly Sollenberger from Spring City, Chester County. She was a 2000 graduate of Owen J. Roberts High School and is a freshman at Penn State-Berks campus, where she is majoring in agriculture business. The state queen contest involv ed three intensive days of compe tition during which 47 fair queen contestants from across the state were judged in interviews and on their presentation and public speaking abilities. The field of 47 was then narrowed down to five semifinalists during a ceremony on the final day of the conven tion. of credit cards on college cam puses is so aggressive that it now poses a greater threat than alco hol or sexually transmitted dis eases,” says Georgetown Univer sity sociologist Robert Manning and author of the CFA report. “Typically, students slide into debt through the extension of un affordable credit lines, increasing education-related expenses, peer pressure to spend, and financial naivete reinforced by low min imum monthly payments and routine increases in credit.” More than 300 colleges and universities have banned credit card marketers on campus with many other universities following their lead. Some organizations, including the CFA, are even call ing for legislation to greatly re strict the access of card market ers to students. And now credit card market ers have access to students through the Internet. “The 1999 Credit Cards on the Internet Re port,” by Brittain Associates (www.brittainassociates.com) re Become Fluent In Pennsylvania Dutch LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) The Lancaster Mennon ite Historical Society will offer a 10-week, spring Pennsylvania German dialect seminar, in tended for persons who wish to increase their fluency in the dia lect and their understanding of the local cultural heritage. A na tive speaker, Fannie Z. Stoltzfus Ellenberg of Harrisburg, will conduct the course in the dialect on Thursday evenings, March 15-May 17,7-9:30 p.m., at Socie ty headquarters, 2215 Mill stream Road, Lancaster, PA 17602-1499. To enhance learning, class size will be limited to qualified applicants on a first-come, first serve basis. Advance registration for the course at $B5 per Society member and $95 per nonmem ber is required with Lola M. Lehman at Society headquar ters. Open to the public, the ses sions require moderate dialect word usage and speaking ability for registrants to enroll. To be conducted in the dialect as much as possible, classes will feature a combination of gram- The final decision was made on the semifinaiists’ responses to a final impromptu question. The judges chose Miss Westmoreland County Fair as first alternate, and then announced Sollenberger as the new state fair queen. Fair Queen 2000 Jana Duttry from Clearfield County Fair and State Secretary of Agriculture Samuel E. Hayes Jr. were on hand for the ceremony. Julie will hold the title of state fair queen for one year and receives a schol arship award to be used toward higher education. She will now go on to represent the state at ag ricultural events in Harrisburg as well as at many of the fairs across the commonwealth. Sollenberger is Kimberton Fair’s second fair queen ever. She has been a livestock exhibitor with the fair since she was young. Julie has been involved with the Chester County 4-H association through its livestock competi tions, Dairy Quiz Bowl Team, veals that young Internet users are more likely to say yes to on line solicitations for credit cards than overall Internet users. But without proper parental guidance and example, such pro tective legislative actions are only delaying the inevitable. Financial literacy starts at home. If your undergraduate is considering credit, encourage him or her to think about employing the fol lowing first: • Budget Taking the time to establish a monthly budget can provide students with realis tic numbers for credit card pay ments. A good formula is to keep your monthly debt obligation below 10 percent of your month ly net income (after taxes). For example, if your net income is $5OO a month, your monthly credit card charges shouldn’t be over $5O. Preparing for planned and unexpected expenses is the best way to guarantee that your credit history remains strong and unblemished. • Shop Around For The Best Deal Don’t be enticed by the mar and New Testament stud ies; a break for informal conver sation and fellowship; reports of local, national, and international news by class members; and short stories for translation and discus sion. Required texts for the course are Richard Drucken brod’s Mir Lanne Deitsch and Es Nei Teshtament, both available from the Society’s bookshop. Reared as one of eight children in a Leola area Amish farm fami ly, Ellenberg spoke Pennsylvania German dialect as her first lan guage. For three years she taught Leant Dutch LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.) The Lancaster Mennonite His- torical Society will offer an intro ductory spring seminar on Penn sylvania German Dialect for Beginners. Taught by Stephen D. Miller of Leola, the class will run for 10 Thursday evenings, 7-9 p.m., Feb. 22-April 26, at Society headquarters, 2215 Millstream Road, Lancaster, PA 17602-1499. Advance registration is required with Lola M. Lehman at $75 per Society member and $B5 per Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 3,2001-815 and the Chester County Dairy Ambassador program. Julie and her family show sev eral breeds of dairy cattle in com petition such as Guernsey, Jer sey, and Holsteins. She will continue to act as ambassador for Kimberton Fair until her reign concludes in July. The purpose of the fair queen competition is to encourage the promotion of agricultural fairs and to create better relations be tween youth and adults in both rural and urban settings. The program is not a “beauty” or “talent” contest rather, con testants are judged on their abili ty to communicate, their knowl edge of the agricultural and fair industries, and overall personali ty. Anyone interested in entering Kimberton’s local competition should contact contest coordina tor Louise Kritzberger. Deadline for entering the 2001 Kimberton Fair Queen competition is April 15. offer of a free T-shirt. Look around for the company that is going to offer the best interest rates and terms. • Study The Agreement Al ways read the fine print and fliers that are included with every bill. Credit card offers dif fer and issuers can usually change the terms at will with IS days notice. • Always Pay On Time A single slip-up will place a black mark on your credit record and may cause the issuer to raise your interest rate to the maxi mum. • Try To Pay The Balance Just paying the minimum gets you no where fast. If you pay off a $l,OOO debt on an 18 percent card by just paying the minimum each month, it will take more than 12 years to repay. • Be Responsible Know what you can handle and live within your means, the way you handle your credit union or bank account and other responsibil ities may affect your credit wor thiness in the future. at the Myers School, a one-room rural school for Old Order Amish and Mennonite children. Still a fluent dialect speaker, she gradu ated from Messiah College, Grantham, with a B.S. degree in elementary education after earn ing a GED diploma in 1978. Currently she is employed by Eldercare Solutions in the Harris burg area. She enjoys reading, gardening, home arts, writing, and singing. For six years she served as a childcare worker, and since 1994 she has taught Sunday school for 3- and 4-year-olds. nonmember 393-9745. Geared for those who have little or no knowledge of the dia lect and no knowledge of Ger man word order, the class will provide examples of the use for dialect words, word lists, ques tions on the lesson, and English to-dialect exercises. Emphasis will be placed on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and some oral reading in class. (717) Phone
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