With signs in their hands and a firm grip on the shoulders of their peers, a long line of kindergartners traveled up the central staircase, burst onto the second floor hallway and sat themselves squarely in front of the bank, Crawfish Bayou Savings and Learn Bank.
Mung, the manager of these young citizens, had been trying for five weeks to secure a bank loan for their business venture, the Bayou Key Notes, but he had been unable to capture the attention of the Bank’s loan officer. He and his employees were tired of waiting. Just because they were small did not mean they were undeserving of an audience!
“There will not be any business conducted at this bank until we can get a loan to pay our employees,” Mung exclaimed.
“No Loan, No Business!” “No Loan, No Business!”
The pint-sized Key Notes employees chanted while blocking the entrance into the bank.
Peacekeepers signaled for additional officers to control the crowd of spectators that had gathered. Things looked peaceful but they were certainly out of the ordinary for Crawfish Bayou. The bystanders had never seen a real protest take place and would not budge from their front row seats.
Mung took a deep breath, straightened his back and re-entered the bank for further negotiations.
As he entered, the door swung open.
“I am the CEO of the bank,” says Katie with the smiling eyes. “How can I help you?”
Mung handed her the application, explained the situation and added “Without a loan, I cannot pay my employees.”
Katie studied Mung’s application.
“I see the problem,” she offers hopefully. “This section of the application is incomplete and my loan officer is a stickler for detail.”
Mung looked at the section she pointed to trying to understand. The bell rang and Katie leaned in. “Bring the forms by tomorrow and I will help you with the missing information, Ok?”
Mung nodded, took her hand to shake it and ran to tell his employees. “We will get the loan,” he explained. “We just need to be more careful with the application.”
“Whew, that’s good news,” Mung heard someone mumble. “I like my job but if I couldn’t pay my bills, I would have to leave.”
Mung added, “I guess we all need to be sticklers for details if we want a paycheck.”