Branch also featured in film starring Sean Astin

Carol Bergen talks to the JK Lee students while PB Jenessa Kastelic (at right) and Jeff Gendelman (at left) look on.

Hi-yah! About 30 students from JK Lee Black Belt Academy visited Fox Point on Aug 21 for a lesson in financial self-defense.

Branch Manager Carol Bergen says the tour came about at the request of customer Jeff Gendelman, a principal and trainer with the academy. The kids ranged in age from 5 to 13.

“We went down to the vault and moved the door back and forth. They were excited about how heavy it was,” Carol says. Back upstairs, she demonstrated how to use a counterfeit detection pen to root out fake bills. “And then we talked about the time-value of money, and how important it was to save and earn interest, so you can earn interest on your interest!”

Gendelman is a longtime customer who arranged to film some scenes of a movie he wrote and produced at the branch last year. The movie, titled The Surface, stars Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings, Rudy, The Goonies) and Mimi Rogers (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery), and is in postproduction.

“Part of the movie was a scene between Sean Astin and a banker,” Carol says. “Two branch employees and a customer might actually be in it for a split second.”

She believes Gendelman will hold a premiere in the Milwaukee area when the movie is released, and says North Shore Bank should be in the credits.