Four residents—Tanya Childress of Gloucester, Terry Oliver and Anita Woodington of Hayes and Maggie Howlett of Hudgins—were able to reduce their debt by $1,000 each in BayPort Credit Union’s $50,000 SmartCents sweepstakes.

The sweepstakes was held to raise awareness of and improve financial wellness, a BayPort release stated.

BayPort members were eligible to enter the sweepstakes, which launched on April 1 to coincide with the relaunch of the credit union’s website and new financial wellness, a chat-like tool called SmartCents. SmartCents is a custom version of an app developed by LifeCents, a proprietary wellness education platform that empowers people to improve their financial health and well-being.

Hampton resident Joshua Holder, a student at Old Dominion University, was chosen at random from more than 4,000 entries to receive up to $25,000 to help pay off existing debt. Twenty-five other winners (including the four local residents) received up to $1,000 ...