$1 Per Day To Not Get Pregnant

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GREENSBORO -- A buck-a-day -- that's the incentive being offered to young girls to keep them from getting pregnant.

The group College-Bound Sisters was founded at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro by Hazel Brown, a maternity nurse who thought too many teens were having babies.

Brown said she hopes the program, which pays $1 each day to 12-to-18-year-old girls, will keep them from getting pregnant. In addition to remaining pregnancy-free, the girls must also attend weekly meetings.

The program is funded by a four-year grant from the state.

"Our three goals are that they avoid pregnancy, graduate from high school and enroll in college," Brown said.

Under the program, $7 is deposited into an interest-bearing college fund that the girls can collect once they graduate high school.

Some recent graduates earned more than $2,000 and are an inspiration to those still in the program.

"I might want to be a teacher for a few years and then be a lawyer," said 12-year-old Chelsey Davis. "I might want to be an actor or singer," another girl in the program, Amanda Davis, added.

Program director Laurie Smith said those aspirations are more achievable because of the incentives the program provides and the friendships it helps create.

Smith said nearly 100 percent of the girls who finish the program have gone on to graduate college.

If a girl drops out or gets pregnant, her money is divided among the other girls still in the program.
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Note the boys get no cash for keeping their zippers up.