Van Nuys Students Tour Wells E-Bus

By Vanessa Herman STAFF REPORTER Five elementary school winners of an essay contest sponsored by Valley Presbyterian Hospital were awarded $100, a savings bond and tours of the Wells Fargo E-Bus on Friday. Wells Fargo also gave the winners, Maria Palacios, Damaris Urrutia, David Martinez, Moujan Hekmatshoar, and Enrique Martinez, $100 savings bonds and gift baskets. Tracy Talley, CFO of Valley Presbyterian personally gave the winners with $100, which will be used by the students to start a savings account at Wells Fargo. Winners were selected from three fourth grade classes at Columbus Elementary School, where they were asked to write essays dealing with the importance of saving money. The essays dealt with topics like saving money for college and giving back to the poor. All participants received an award for their efforts. Valley Presbyterian developed the contest with Wells Fargo, part of the bank’s community efforts include financial education. The nationally-touring Wells Fargo E-Bus is a mobile high-tech education training center that includes sixteen Internet terminals for online access, six large plasma screens and two small LCD screens for audio visual training. The contest, originally scheduled for August, was delayed due to Hurricane Katrina efforts, when the bus made its way to New Orleans and assisted those with no computer access with online banking. As part of the non-profit hospital’s mission, Talley said, “It’s important for us to give back to the community.”