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McRae: Meet Us at the Fair

The Mississippi State Fair is a tradition for many families, and it’s become a tradition for your State Treasury as well. We’ll be back in the TradeMart building this year with new opportunities for Fair-goers to earn cash while enjoying the festivities.

More specifically, our College Savings Mississippi team is trying to make the State Fair a time for food, fun, and scholarship funds. We know that students with money in a college savings account are significantly more likely to attend college, even if that account has just a few hundred dollars in it. So, we decided to hand out a $500 scholarship to one lucky Fair family! Just stop by our booth to sign up.

This scholarship money will be given out in the form of a Mississippi Affordable College Savings (MACS) account. The money can grow here until your child enters college. Once they start pursuing a career of their choosing, the funds can be used for a wide variety of educational necessities, including tuition, books, supplies, and certain room and board expenses.

Even if you don’t win a MACS scholarship at the fair, it’s worth taking a look at opening an account for a loved one in your life. Parents, grandparents, and even family friends can open and contribute to the accounts. Doing so might not only mitigate or eliminate student loan debt, but it could give your loved one the push they need to pursue a college degree in the first place.

But that isn’t the only way to earn a little extra cash while at the State Fair. Our Unclaimed Money team will also be on hand.

Unclaimed money is turned over to the state when banks, credit unions, and even retail stores are unable to find the rightful owner. After five years, financial institutions turn that money over to the state and the Treasury’s Unclaimed Property Division is charged with finding the owner and returning the cash. In total, my team has returned more than $35 million to Mississippians since January 2020.

While at the State Fair, please stop by our Unclaimed Money booth and see if we can find missing money in your name. Often, we’ll find a few hundred dollars for you. Sometimes, we’ll find a few thousand. You just never know!

We hope you enjoy this year’s State Fair. If you are unable to attend or unable to visit our booth, please visit us online at Treasury.MS.gov. There, you can learn more about college savings and even search for your unclaimed money.

I hope to see you at the Fair!