CHECK CASHERS GIVE BACK TO THE NEW YORK COMMUNITY

The year 2000 will be a bellwether one for New York’s professional check cashing community, especially in the category of giving back to the communities they serve.

While each and almost every owner and operator of the metro area’s check cashers does something in his or her own neighborhood to underscore commitment, whether it is Little League or soccer team sponsorship, a blood drive, food donations for the indigent, and the like, the Check Cashers Association of New York (CCANY) took several bold steps over the past five years to dispel myths that the industry does not care. If anything, the activism shown by licensed check cashers has increased with both fervor and capital.

Consider two mainstays of the industry’s willingness to support the New York City community, notably its public school system.

Scholars Graduate with Class

Hempstead, L.I.-based check casher Sanford (Sandy) Herman long harbored a dream about starting a college scholarship program. While he discussed it with his colleagues for many years and lobbied to help create it, the elements did not really fall into place until 1995.  That’s when Herman convinced CCANY and Travelers Express/Money Gram, the Minneapolis-based unit of Viad Corporation, to commence a scholarship program and to underwrite its costs.

Herman realized, too, that you needed to crawl before walking. With that mind-set, he arranged meetings with key executives at the New York City Board of Education, where he debated and settled on a formula that would help to improve the lives of many high school seniors who really needed financial assistance to help jump-start their freshman college year.

Unlike other college scholarship programs that already existed and were amply financed, the initial year’s effort was to award $1,500 to each of five first-place winners  in the five boroughs of New York City, and a lesser sum to second and third-place winners.

By comparison, the academic year 2000/2001 first place winners announced in May, were awarded $3,000 apiece, and better than $27,000 was distributed to 14 graduates.

Since its inception, over $100,000 in college scholarship money has been awarded to 75 graduates of the New York City Public Schools. This includes not only first place recipients, but two runners-up in each borough.

The key to the program, Herman opined, was not only academic achievement, but the volunteerism and community involvement shown by each candidate. That, he felt, made all of the difference. Many of the winners, too, lived in the very neighborhood served by the check casher.

The first class of CCANY Scholars just graduated from college. Some have taken time to attend the annual scholarship luncheon and applaud the industry for taking this initiative. All of this makes Herman proud that his creation only gets better with age.

The scholarship effort has not gone unnoticed. All you need do is ask Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer who presided over the May 2000 event. He, too, lauded the check cashing community for getting involved and doing the right thing to give back to the communities in which they do business.

While Herman is already raising more monies for the sixth annual scholarship competition and contemplating a grand prize-type of scholarship – a bigger award for a longer term – he realizes that the effort expended by check cashers has made a difference.

Clothing Makes a Difference

As public school students tried to outdo each other as fashion plates only several years ago, this became the basis for real class distinction, envy, and some serious altercations between the have’s and the have-nots.

Something had to give.

Enter Bill Siegel, a former CCANY president and a Brooklyn check cashing store owner.

With the help of Western Union, a major vendor to the check cashing industry nationwide, in 1998 he approached the New York Public Schools with an idea that mirrored, to a degree, the uniform look of the city’s private and parochial school system. In essence, he persuaded them to allow New York’s check cashers to "dress" pre-kindergarten through sixth grade youngsters.

The timing was fortuitous. The Board of Education had just decreed that school uniforms be mandated. Moreover, they were moving forward with their plan, but had not quite enlisted adequate funding support.

As the school uniform program enters its third year, over 2000 youngsters have been clothed, from head to toe, and more than $200,000 pledged to date by CCANY and Western Union. For the school year that began in September 2000, over $80,000 has been earmarked for the effort.

You could easily argue that clothing does indeed make the person. A happy youngster, too, avers Siegel.

CCANY represents over 600 licensed check cashing stores statewide, employing over 4,000 residents and cashing checks with a face value approaching $14 billion. The industry is regulated by the New York State Banking Department, and charges a 1.4% check cashing fee – the lowest in the nation. Check cashers also offer payment of utility bills, sales of MetroCards – it is the second largest purveyor after the Metropolitan Transit Authority, pre-paid telephone cards, postage, money orders, wire remittances and cash advances, to cite a few of the many financial services available.

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Note:  Prior to May 2004, the Financial Service Centers of New York (FSCNY) was named the Check Cashers Association of New York (CCANY). Consequently, press releases and articles during that time period reflect the organization's CCANY name.