FFB&T Newsroom

News from the Sheridan Branch

The Sheridan Chamber of Commerce recently held their Annual Dinner at the Palomino Ballroom. During the event, they give an award presented to a community business. For 2009, First Farmers Bank & Trust received the Sheridan Chamber Appreciation Award for Outstanding Dedication and Devotion. We are very excited and thankful to receive this award from the Chamber!

In other Sheridan news, the Sheridan Harvest 5K was held on October 3rd at Biddle Memorial Park. Brian Bragg, branch manager at our Sheridan office, helps to organize this event every year, which runs concurrently with the Sheridan Harvest Moon Festival. The race is open to both walkers and runners and there is also a corporate challenge. In 2008, FFBT won this challenge. Brian and Keith Hill, Chief Financial Officer, participated in the event this year for FFBT. Brian stated, "The 5K had a great turnout this year with 105 runners and was a huge success."

All of the proceeds from the event go to the upkeep of the Sheridan portion of the Monon Trail.

Michelle Boyd is usually a participant in the Sheridan 5K, but she was focused on something else this year: the Chicago Marathon! She ran in the race on October 11th with a time of 4 hours, 29 minutes, and 14 seconds.

Peru River Announces the Winner of the iPod Giveaway

After a month of guessing, the results are in. In order to win the iPod, visitors of the Peru River branch had to guess the amount of money in dimes that were in a container (shown on the right). The person with the closest guess without going over would win the iPod. The amount in the container was $371.20, and the closest guess was $365, and was guessed by Anna Williams. Very close!

She picked up the iPod at the beginning of November with her son D'Andre. They were both VERY excited about winning (see left!).

Along with the month long opportunity to guess, the bank also held drawings twice each day for the first 10 days of the month in honor of their 10 year anniversary.

Jayson Hall, Wally Wollenhaupt, Kendra Pitts, Jim Townsend, Karen LeMaster, Carol Blohm, Alice Allman, Nancy Briner, Tami Tschianck, Micah Duncan, Linda Graber, Michelle Hewitt, and David Jones were the lucky winners of the daily drawings. The winners received a gift among many options: Personal coffee makers, a folding step stool, popcorn maker, duffel bags, and coolers.

The Peru River Branch wants to thank everyone who came out in October to celebrate their anniversary with them and look forward to many more!

Wabash Celebration of Light to be Held November 20th

Don't forget!! The Celebration of Light is taking place next Friday!

Jennifer McConahay, Customer Service Representative, and Liz Calhoun from First Farmers Bank and Trust, prepared the candy canes for Santa to pass out at the Celebration of Light. The Celebration of Light will be held on November 20th at 6:00 pm on the courthouse steps. Cindy Flannigan and daughters will lead the attendees in Christmas Carols, and Santa will arrive by fire truck as the lights are lit on the courthouse. Santa will then proceed to Modoc's Market where children can visit with Santa and have their picture taken with him. The Manchester Symphony will be in attendance to play for the visitors at Modoc's while Santa is there.

If you've never been to this event before, consider 2009 to be a first! Join First Farmers employees at this event. For more information, contact the Wabash branch of FFBT at (260) 563-1196.

FFBT and Employees Participate in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

First Farmers Bank & Trust participated in a unique event that generated national publicity recently as it partnered with Hallmark Homes and a variety of other vendors to help host ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. FFBT was a monetary sponsor of the event and several FFBT employees donated their time and skills to the project over the course of the 8 day building in Bunker Hill. A number of long hours were spent in poor weather conditions at various activities including food service, painting, cleaning, building, and transporting materials. Participants said it was an incredible experience to witness and be a part of that they would never forget. FFBT is proud of the dedication of staff to volunteer their time and abilities to help such a worthy family. Several FFBT clients also helped in the build, some spending more than 24 hours continuously at the build site. Employees also visited the site throughout the week as spectators and several were able to represent the bank at the wrap up party on Tuesday night.

FFBT Donates to Susan G Komen Foundation and National Lee Denim Day

For the past several years, First Farmers Bank & Trust has supported the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Lee National Denim Day. Employees have the option of contributing funds to the effort in exchange for a casual jeans day. This year, Denim Day took place on Oct 9th and all 18 branches participated. Overall, First Farmers employees raised $1282 and the Bank donated $350 for a total donation of $1632 to be split between the two organizations. The two branches that contributed the most funds were Converse and Culver. Great job!

Cancer awareness and research funding remains an important part of community outreach for the Greentown branch of FFBT. The staff hosts several events throughout the year for supporting Relay for Life including, a Walk, a Motorcycle Ride, and a cookbook sale containing customer & employee recipes. For more information on these events or cookbook order information, please visit our FFBT Facebook page.

Order Your Relay for Life Cookbook Today to Support Greentown's Efforts

The Greentown Branch employees are proud sponsors of “Relay for Life”. The American Cancer Society “Relay For Life’ represents “ The hope that those lost to cancer will never be forgotten, that those facing cancer will be supported, and that one day cancer will be eliminated.”

Wherever you look, it seems that someone has been touched by this devastating disease. Whether it be a loved one, a friend, or neighbor we all know someone who is struggling to survive, or has been taken from us, by this deadly disease. Cancer does not discriminate. Whether you are a child or adult, healthy or unhealthy, Cancer doesn’t care. “Relay For Life” has always been a special project for the Greentown Branch but even more so this year. This time it struck the FFBT family in Greentown, not once but twice. Thanks to regular screenings, ½ of all new cancer diagnosis can be prevented or detected early.

The true spirit of our dedication and passion for “Relay For Life” can be seen in our fund-raising efforts in the past 11 years. Our fundraising efforts have grown from bake sales and lunches to motorcycle rides, a community walk, and cookbooks. Our goal is to raise as much money as possible to help with the Fight For a Cure!!! This cookbook is just another example of our community coming together to support one another!

To order a cookbook, which is filled with 164 recipes of appetizers, desserts, and beverages, contact the Greentown branch at (765) 628-3309. Each cookbook is $10, with all proceeds going to benefit Relay for Life, and all recipes were submitted by Greentown customers and employees.

Celebration of Lights in Wabash to be Held on Friday, November 20th

On Friday, November 20th at 6pm at the Wabash Courthouse, the City of Wabash will hold their annual Celebration of Lights. If you've never been to this event before, consider 2009 to be a first. During the celebration, Christmas carols are led by Cindy Flanigan and her daughters, Santa stops by with treats for the kids, Mayor Bob VanLandingham gives a little insight into the Celebration and the holiday season, and then the lights on the courthouse and candles are lit.

Join First Farmers employees at this event this year. For more information, contact the Wabash branch of FFBT at (260) 563-1196.

Ken Perkins' Wife and Daughter To Act in the Wabash Area Community Theater Production of 'Anything Goes'

Ken Perkins, FFBT Vice President and Senior Commercial Lender, has talented family members. His wife, Beth, and daughter, Emily, will perform in the Wabash Area Community Theater Production of Anything Goes on Oct 9-11 at the Ford Theater Stage of the Honeywell Center. Emily Perkins will be playing Reno Sweeney, former evangelist turned nightclub singer, one of the lead roles. She has performed in many other productions through high school and college. She encouraged her mom, Beth, to audition after a role became open--a member of Reno's group, Reno's Angels.

The show features a lot of Cole Porter's best songs and the show is a light comedy set aboard a cruise ship.

Come see Emily and Beth Perkins perform this weekend at the Ford Theater stage of the Honeywell Center! Showtimes are listed below:

Friday, October 9th: 7:30pm
Saturday, October 10th: 7:30pm
Sunday, October 11th: 2:00pm

Tickets are available at the Honeywell box office or by calling (260) 563-1102.

FFBT Participates in Amboy Fall Festival

The Amboy Fall Festival was held from Saturday September 19-20 and featured community activities for Amboy residents and visitors. The festival, now in its 4th year, featured a parade, dunking booth, corn hole tournament, car show, and a variety of other events designed to appeal to a wide variety of guests. As part of the event, the bank sponsored a presentation of a memorial park bench honoring former FFBT employee and board member, Steve Shrock. Locally based Caldwell Monument Inc was contracted to create a fitting memorial inscription as shown below to be placed near the park bench that was dedicated at last year’s ceremony. Also sponsored by First Farmers Bank & Trust was the car show, the corn hole tournament, and the Little Mr. and Miss Amboy Pageant. The winner of the People’s Choice Award for the car show was Buff Fuller. The winners of the Little Mr and Miss Amboy were as follows:

2-4 years: Aubrey Simmons and Drake Pond
5-7 years: Alaina Simmons and Deaton Pond
8-10 years: Victoria Davis and Braxton Camden (Pam Camden’s grandson!)

 

 

The winners of the corn hole tournament were Noah Herschberger, Jake Schmuber, Wayne Otto, and Ed Petty. First Farmers also held several events throughout the week and at the fair, and participated in other festival activities. In keeping with the Rock and Roll theme of the festival, the branch held a “Do the Twist” contest. Nancy Williamson was the winner and won a box of checks for her effort. They also gave away Merle Haggard tickets in a random drawing, and the winner of that drawing was Fred Ammerman Jr from Peru. Finally, the Amboy branch gave away free popcorn like they have done in past years and Melody Ringeisen volunteered to spend almost an hour in the community dunking booth! She made almost $24 during that time, and even contributed some of her own money to make sure she dunked Chris Norris a few times! Chris was in the booth representing Norris Insurance in Amboy, but he is also one of FFBT’s board members. Overall, the festival raised $1018 to be donated for playground equipment for the children. Attendance at the event surpassed expectations and the community looks forward to hosting the festival again next year.

FFBT's Ken Perkins Speaks at Midwest Pork Conference

First Farmers Bank and Trust, Sr. Commercial Lender, Ken Perkins recently spoke to industry representatives and producers at the Midwest Pork Conference at the Hendricks County Conference Complex in Danville, Indiana. The conference, hosted by Indiana Pork, hosted over 300 attendees and is the premiere regional event in the industry. Ken’s topics included necessary communication strategies to implement when examining the economic viability of agricultural lending relationships. Ken spoke on suggested practices that should be employed by pork producers in cooperation with the lenders and the long term practices that will help those producers better analyze the profitability and costs associated with their operation.