Community Involvement

Continually Focused on Building a Better Community

For more than 100 years, Farmers Bank has served the financial needs of our customers. At the same time, we’ve helped strengthen the community where we operate with financial support, in-kind donations and volunteer service.

Since its inception in November of 2019, our employees were given the option to work 1-3 hour shifts, fully-paid, volunteering in the community, day or night. Organizations, events, and initiatives our employees have supported include Spencer Hospital Foundation, People for Pets, Grand Avenue Outreach Soup Kitchen, Adopt - a - Family and many, many more. Additionally, our employees volunteer for events at Spencer Community Schools, Kiwanis, Rotary clubs, athletic and fine arts booster clubs, and the Spencer Chamber of Commerce to name a few. With our employee-driven volunteer efforts, our staff donates more than 2,000 hours of volunteer support each year.

Our employees impact many important and different community and professional organizations as volunteers, trustees, and directors. These employees provide hundreds of hours of volunteer service every year. If your organization is in need of volunteers, email us at farmersinfo@farmerstrust.bank.

At Farmers Bank, we have a responsibility to help support the success of our community we serve. We’re committed to strengthening our communities through volunteer activities, charitable investments, and need-based product and services offerings.

 

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Junior Achievement was founded in 1919, and is one of the nation's largest organizations dedicated to giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to own their economic success. The Junior Achievement program ignites the spark in young people to experience and realize the opportunities and realities of work and life.

Farmers Bank has partnered with Junior Achievement to work within the Spencer School district to bring educational units on work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to the 7th graders at no charge to the schools. "I have really, really enjoyed teaching the JA Economics for Success course.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with student engagement never having done anything like this before.  I can now confidently say the students very much enjoy the material and the class participation has been more enthusiastic than I ever expected.  I truly look forward to going to work with the 7^th grade students each week.  Spencer Middle School has been the perfect partner for this course, we can't thank them enough for allowing us to provide this opportunity to their students", states Kent Gethmann, VP, Commercial Loan Officer.  For many students, participation in a Junior Achievement program is their first introduction to real-world financial situations, like budgeting or managing credit.  

Why JA: Testimonial - 2 Minutes from Diane Birkeness on Vimeo.

Farmers Bank supports Junior Achievement through sponsorship and volunteering. Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers go into local classrooms and teach young people about the financial realities they will one day face. 
 
The Junior Achievement program "JA Economics for Success®" provides  practical information about personal finance and the importance of identifying education and career goals based on a student's skills, interests, and values.

The lessons include:

1. Session One: Mirror, Mirror
   Students make choices to better understand the concept of self-knowledge—the awareness of their skills, interests, and values—as they consider education, careers, and other life choices.
2. Session Two: Be a Success
   Students learn how to set goals for their financial future. They play the Be a Success Game to see the connection between personal finance, education, and careers.
3. Session Three: Keeping Your Balance
   Students receive Occupation Cards and observe how different jobs provide different monthly salaries. Based on those monthly salaries, students evaluate the opportunity cost when making budget decisions.
4. Session Four: Savvy Shopper
   Students examine how consumers pay for goods and services. They discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using debit and credit cards.
5. Session Five: Keeping Score
   Students examine how a credit score is determined and learn about the consequences of a positive and negative credit report.
6. Session Six: What’s the Risk?
   Students learn that life involves risk and that insurance and personal responsibility help to reduce the financial consequences of loss or injury.