Home Bank, Martinsville; Community First Bank of Indiana, Kokomo; and 1st Source Bank, South Bend, have been honored with the Indiana Bankers Association C2C (Commitment to Community) Awards for outstanding community service performed during 2024.
Home Bank won the category of banks with assets below $750 million. “Making lives better” is in the bank’s vision statement.
“That attitude of service really permeates everything here in our life at Home Bank,” said Lisa Arnold, the bank’s president and CEO. “When there’s a need and someone puts out a call for help, our employees really step up and just give because that’s what they want to do. It’s really just their heart.”
“We firmly believe that giving back to the communities we operate in improves those communities, making it a better place to work and a better place to do business, and helps us attract people who have like-minded views,” said Robert “Robb” Blume, president and CEO of Community First Bank of Indiana, Kokomo, which was honored in the Mid-sized Banks category. If the institution’s name didn’t give it away, community improvement has been one of its primary motivators since its founding and continues to be one of the four pillars of its strategic plan, and Blume credits his people for their success. “The people we hire believe in community service. They do it out of the goodness of their hearts, not because we force them out the door to participate. They look forward to opportunities to give back to our community.”
1st Source Bank, South Bend, was the winner in the Large Banks category. President & CEO Andrea G. Short said their success in community service is “just having it be part of who we are at 1st Source. We are out in our communities. We live here, work here, worship here and raise our families here, and we do it because it’s the right thing to do. Community leadership is one of our core values which, in turn, brings community-minded people to want to work here. Ultimately this core value is what makes us successful in serving our communities well.”
Winners were chosen out of 22 entrants across the three categories. The awards were presented on Thursday, May 29, during the IBA Mega Conference in Indianapolis. Hoosier Heartland State Bank, Crawfordsville; Peoples Bank, Munster; and Centier Bank, Merrillville, were also recognized as finalists.
The Association created the C2C Awards in 2018 to celebrate exceptional bank outreach and raise public awareness of the diverse ways that banks support the communities they serve.
“Banks are not only economic drivers in communities across the state of Indiana, but true community partners,” said Amber R. Van Til, IBA president and CEO. “It’s our honor to recognize Home Bank, which donates 10% of its net income every quarter to nonprofits across its markets; Community First Bank of Indiana, where employees volunteered more than 2,000 hours; and 1st Source Bank, which taught more than 200 financial literacy classes, helping individuals with budgeting, saving and homeownership. These are just three examples from the nearly 120 IBA-member banks that serve their communities day-in and day-out.”
All 22 nominees are featured on IBA social media under hashtag #C2CAwards. A summary of all bank nominations is available on the IBA website.
