COUNTRY BANK PREPARES LUDLOW HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT TEAMS FOR THE 4th ANNUAL JA STUDENT STOCK MARKET CHALLENGE

October 28, 2009

[Ludlow, MA] Country Bank First Vice President, Phil Goncalves announced that Country Bank is once again a Silver Sponsor for the JA Student Stock Market Challenge. This is the fourth year that Country Bank has supported the event and sponsored students from local towns where Country Bank has branches to participate in the event . “This is my second year presenting the JA Stock Market Prep Activities to Student Teams from Ludlow High School,” said Phil Goncalves, “This is a great opportunity for them to experience what it is like to trade stocks on the floor of the NYSE.”

On Friday, October 30^th, Phil Goncalves, First Vice President of Country Bank, present JA’s “Take Stock in America” program to Ms. Linda Courtney’s students who will compete in the 4^th Annual JA Student Stock Market Challenge on November 5, 2009 at the MassMutual Center. The students will compete against 126 other student teams from throughout Western Massachusetts. The Stock Market Challenge is an advanced high-tech stock market simulation where teams compete in a virtual world to see who will amass the highest net-worth by the end of the investing period. The event is fast-paced, teams competing through sixty trading days in one hour, or a new trading day every minute.

According to Chris Melanson, Vice President of Operations for Fun-Raiser Inc. the developers of the Stock Market Challenge noted that, “ The JA of Western Massachusetts’ Stock Market Challenge event is the biggest ever in the history of Fun-Raiser in the U.S. and Canada. As we are the only company that does what we do, real virtual simulations, you could say it’s the largest event in the world. Your event is so big that we’ve had to change some of the software aspects. All numbers stopped at 100, as we assumed that would be the biggest anyone would get. JA of Western Massachusetts has proven those assumptions to be wrong. “

Country Bank has been serving the community since 1850, with the philosophy of treating customers as they would want to be treated. “Country Bank has been a Junior Achievement supporter for over two decades because the Bank and its employees are committed to help teach the youth in our community the fundamentals of financial literacy including saving and investing. We are very fortunate to be able to work with Country Bank,” noted Jennifer Connolly, President of Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts.

To find out more about the Stock Market Challenge or Junior Achievement, call (413) 747-7670 or email jawesternma@jawm.org .

About Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise. Through a dedicated volunteer network, JA provides in-school and after-school programs for students in grades K-12. JA offers educational programs that focus on seven key content areas: business, citizenship, economics, entrepreneurship, ethics/character, financial literacy, and career development.