As financial stress peaks, Dupaco delivers millions of personalized money insights 

DUBUQUE, Iowa — As Americans enter 2026 with some of the highest levels of financial stress in recent years, Dupaco Credit Union continues expanding digital tools that help people take control of their financial lives. Since launching Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub in 2025, the financial cooperative has delivered millions of proactive, personalized insights that help members reduce stress, build savings and strengthen day-to-day financial confidence.  

Polling from the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) shows a deeply strained financial landscape. According to NEFE (https://www.nefe.org/news/2026/01/poll-americans-feeling-stressed-to-begin-2026.aspx), 88% of U.S. adults report feeling some level of financial stress entering 2026, one of the highest levels recorded in the organization’s decade of tracking financial well‑being. Additionally, 77% of Americans experienced a financial setback in 2025, including unexpected expenses, falling behind on bills and income disruptions. 

As financial pressure is mounting, consumers are seeking tools that help forecast expenses, manage cash flow, strengthen emergency savings and empower confident daily financial decisions. Dupaco’s no-cost Bright Track Financial Wellness Hub offer that support. 

Bright Track evolved significantly in 2025, becoming a comprehensive money management tool, helping members understand their spending and saving habits through real‑time insights, personalized alerts and actionable recommendations designed to reduce stress and improve financial well‑being. 

To date, Bright Track has delivered 13.3 million+ personalized insights to help members manage their money. These insights include notifications about upcoming bills, unexpected deposits or expenses, duplicate subscriptions and changes in automatic payments — helping members stay ahead of potential issues. 

“With financial stress at historic highs, consumers need both smart tools and people they can turn to for help,” says Kevin Lex, Digital Banking Product Manager at Dupaco. “Bright Track gives members real-time insights that reduce financial surprises. And, when they want deeper guidance, our Dupaco experts are here with 1:1 support. Together, our digital resources and our employees help members feel more confident and in control of their money.” 

Learn more about Dupaco’s tools to support financial well-being at Dupaco.com/bright-track.  

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About Dupaco Community Credit Union 

Dupaco Community Credit Union is a not-for-profit, member-owned financial cooperative headquartered in Dubuque, Iowa. It is dedicated to the financial well-being of its members, and specializes in personalized financial counseling, money advice and education. It offers savings, loans, investments, insurance and wealth management products for individuals and businesses. Dupaco serves residents in 118 counties throughout Iowa, northwest Illinois and southwest Wisconsin. Founded in 1948 by ten Dubuque Packing Company employees, membership has grown to more than 180,000 with assets exceeding $3.6 billion. It has over 600 employees and 23 branch office locations.  Learn more at www.dupaco.com. 

Mad for Reading Marks One Year of Building Literacy and Community Across MMSD

MADISON, Wis.—The Madison Metropolitan School District’s Mad for Reading initiative has entered its second year with growing student participation and expanded community partnerships aimed at strengthening literacy across the district.

Since launching last school year, 3,344 students have logged more than 10,000 books and more than 808,000 minutes of reading through the program. The initiative is designed to help students build stronger reading habits while creating new opportunities for families, educators and community partners to engage with books together.

Mad for Reading encourages students to find books that excite them, track their reading and build community by participating in school and districtwide challenges. This year, MMSD introduced a new reading-tracking app powered by Beanstack, allowing students and families to log reading minutes, earn digital badges and celebrate milestones as part of a districtwide goal of reaching 2.6 million minutes read by the end of the school year.

Participation is increasing across all grade levels.

• Among elementary schools, Schenk Elementary School currently leads with more than 140,000 minutes logged. John F. Kennedy Elementary School has the highest participation rate, with nearly 90 percent of students actively recording their reading, followed closely by Henry David Thoreau and Lapham elementary schools.
• At the middle school level, Ezekiel Gillespie Middle School leads with more than 54,000 minutes logged and about 58 percent student participation, with Georgia O’Keeffe and Black Hawk middle schools close behind.
• East High School currently leads district high schools with more than 16,000 minutes logged.

“This past year has shown what’s possible when a community comes together around literacy,” said Dr. Joe Gothard, superintendent of MMSD. “Mad for Reading is helping students discover the joy of reading while building critical skills that support their success in school and beyond.”

Community partnerships have also supported the program’s growth. Organizations including the Madison Public Library, Madison Reading Project and Wisconsin Book Festival have helped expand access to books and literacy programming for students and families, while the UW Badgers, Forward Madison FC and Athletes Unlimited have helped bring literacy into new spaces by pairing reading with athletics and community events.

“Seeing reading celebrated across schools and the broader community helps strengthen students’ confidence and motivation as readers,” said Maegan Heindel, MMSD’s library services coordinator. “Our libraries, classrooms and community partners are all working together to help students discover books that spark their curiosity.”

Mad for Reading also includes a variety of school and districtwide activities designed to promote literacy engagement, including the annual Book Bowl, Copa de Libros, Read Your Heart Out and family literacy nights.

The initiative reflects MMSD’s ongoing focus on ensuring every student develops strong literacy skills and a lifelong interest in reading.

More information about Mad for Reading is available on the MMSD website.

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About the Madison Metropolitan School District

The Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) is the second-largest school district in Wisconsin, serving more than 25,000 students across 52 schools. The district’s vision is that every school will be a thriving school that prepares every student to graduate ready for college, career and community. With more than 6,000 teachers and staff, MMSD is committed to ensuring the district’s goals and core values are held at the center of its efforts, so students can learn, belong and thrive. For more information, visit mmsd.org.

Oakwood Village plans for the future in Madison

Madison, Wis. — Oakwood Village, a local nonprofit continuing care retirement community, announces a partnership with EUA, an integrated architecture, engineering and design firm, to plan for the community’s future.

Founded more than 75 years ago, the community has two campuses—one located 6 miles west of downtown Madison and another between Madison and Sun Prairie. They are developing a repositioning plan to address the growing demand for senior living options in the region and assess future campus needs.

EUA will work closely with Oakwood’s leadership team to refine and carry out this plan. The firm has more than 260 employees and branches in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Denver, and Atlanta.

The Oakwood Village board of directors unanimously approved EUA’s proposal for services. “Our resident-centered mission guides every decision,” says Oakwood President and CEO Jan Hamilton-Crawford. “That’s why we choose partners who share that commitment. EUA’s team is nationally recognized for its senior living design expertise. Their experience will help Oakwood carry our mission into the future.”

Over the next few months, Oakwood and EUA will focus on discovery, concept development, and alignment on priorities. A preliminary direction will be shared with stakeholders as the repositioning plan takes clearer shape.

“We believe that great design elevates people’s potential,” says EUA Senior Living Market Leader Jennifer Sodo. “We’re excited to collaborate with Oakwood to discover how their campus can support the changing needs of older adults for years to come.”

Click here to download photos 

About Oakwood Village

Oakwood Village is a nonprofit, continuing care community with two campuses in Madison, Wisconsin, run by Oakwood Lutheran Senior Ministries. For over 75 years, this community has helped older adults lead lives of personal growth, happiness, health, and security.

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RMHC-Madison Hiring Director of Volunteers & Programs

RMHC-Madison offers a true home-away-from-home with cozy rooms, nourishing meals, andand compassionate assistance for families who may have traveled hours—or even flown across the country—for their child’s treatment. Guided by RMHC’s core values, every member of
the team is committed to delivering compassionate care and unwavering support to the families they serve, their partners, and each other.

The Director of Volunteers & Programs advances their mission by providing day-to-day leadership, operations, and oversight of RMHC-Madison’s hospital-based programs and leadership of volunteer services for all programs. This role ensures programs are welcoming, well-organized, properly staffed, and aligned with RMHC-Madison’s standards and hospital partner expectations. In addition, the Director will support recruiting, training, orienting, and appreciation of recurring volunteers to enhance the overall experience for all families who interact with any of their programs. They will develop and implement strategies to support the unique needs of families while building a compassionate, supportive, and positive environment by building relationships to promote volunteering through community events, volunteer fairs, and public speaking opportunities

This role actively connects staff, volunteers, families, healthcare partners, and community members to strengthen communication, boost engagement, and maximize participation in RMHC-Madison’s hospital-based and volunteer programs.

Learn more and apply here.

Carnelian Art Gallery announces its April exhibition

Madison, Wisconsin, March 3 – Carnelian Art Gallery, located at 221 King St., Suite 102, in downtown Madison, is pleased to announce its second art exhibition of the year, titled “Shifting Ground.”

This is a solo exhibition with works by Madison artist Peg Orcutt. Orcutt creates visceral, large-scale landscapes, often representations of sky, water, forest, and fiery scenes, that invite onlookers to become “immersed in each image and explore the possibilities of that particular space,” she says.

The exhibition’s title, “Shifting Ground,” represents the continuous evolution of Orcutt’s own artistic process, and shines a lens on emergent issues related to global warming, as well as the current political zeitgeist.

Shifting Ground is slated to kick off with an opening reception at 5 p.m. on Friday, April 10, and is to be on display from Friday, April 3, until Sunday, April 26.

As always at Carnelian Art Gallery, admission on opening night is free, and light refreshments will be served. At 6 p.m. on opening night, Orcutt will deliver an artist talk about the works she created for Shifting Ground, as well as her general comeuppance as an artist.

“Showing at Madison’s hottest new gallery is a thrill,” says Orcutt. “Evan Bradbury has been involved in the Madison art scene for many years, but his new space is the best yet. Working with Emilie Heilemann has really added to his commitment to showing terrific art. I am delighted to join the ranks of both established and lesser known artists at Carnelian.”

Orcutt is originally from Chicago, Illinois. For her undergraduate degree, Orcutt studied studio art and art history at Wellesley College, located in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Orcutt then studied at the University of Illinois in Chicago to obtain her graduate degree in fine arts.

She taught drawing at Sage College of Albany in upstate New York for “many years” before moving to the Madison area with her husband, who is an electrical engineer. The duo enjoy cross country skiing in the wintertime when there’s free-time, Orcutt says.

“It is such a privilege to work with Orcutt on an exhibition at Carnelian Art Gallery” says Emilie Heidemann, Carnelian Art Gallery marketing director. “Her works exude deep purpose and soul.”

“The gallery is beyond thrilled to showcase Orcutt’s talent,” says Evan Bradbury, Carnelian Art Gallery owner and head curator. “If you want to feel something real, this is an exhibition I highly recommend checking out. Please join us for opening night on Friday, April 10. Everyone is welcome.”