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.