First National Bank & Trust Company*

First National Bank & Trust Co. of Mountain Home has a long history of community involvement and philanthropic endeavors.

“Giving back, whether it be volunteer hours or financial contributions, is a fundamental commitment to the cities we serve,” said Joe Miles, president of the bank. “We just see it as a very genuine aspect of us doing business.”

Among its civic projects are a $500,000 endowment for First National Hall, the business building on the Mountain Home campus of Arkansas State University; a $100,000 commitment to the Baxter County Library Foundation to build and maintain a new main library; and a $100,000 commitment for the new student center and internet cafe at Black River Vocational Technical School in Pocahontas.

Employees at the Mountain Home and Pocahontas operations combined average more than 200 hours of community service monthly for dozens of civic and charity groups. Each month, the “dress casual for a cause” program raises money for a different local nonprofit organization. “It’s just part of our value system here,” Miles said. “Our expectation is that new employees will be involved with improving the quality of life in the communities we serve.”

To help meet this expectation, the bank provides time off for employees to pursue community volunteerism. Examples include reading to students as part of the Reading Is Fundamental program at local schools, staffing one-hour programs to teach saving and basic financial skills to third-graders as part of Teach Children to Save Week and serving as mentors for high school students and raising money for an unplanned-pregnancy center.

Founded in 1963, the company has 131 staffers working at three locations in Mountain Home, two in Pocahontas and one each in Gassville, Flippin, Lakeview and Jonesboro. During 2007, First National tallied a $4.1 million profit on total assets of more than $350 million.