Based on current research and conventional wisdom, financial education should begin at an early age. With the exception of a few generally underutilized in-school banking programs, Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore, like so many other areas across the nation, has few or no school-based financial literacy programs. A partnership with 23 public, private, and parochial schools and Head Start centers was developed to inspire and educate more than 5,000 children, ages 3 to 11, their parents, and their classroom teachers on making saving money a habit. The Parents and Teachers as Wealth Coaches project embodied a unique educational, entrepreneurial, and philanthropic triad of resources coming together to provide a high quality, best solution financial education program via the regular school setting, without discrimination, to all students. The goals were to reach young children with basic messages of personal financial responsibility, to deliver age-appropriate educational resources and, in the process, to model ways of teaching personal finance to teachers and parents--and to connect with as many individuals as possible. A web of shared understanding, high quality resources, and a strong network of motivated community members are now helping people on the Lower Eastern Shore learn to manage money, set financial goals, and achieve them in a way that has never before been accomplished. This is an instructive example of research-based knowledge being applied to encourage unique partnerships that promote sustainable mediation of rural poverty. (Contains 1 table.)