Editor’s Note: BankBeat intern Rhea Krumpelman highlighted the community work of seven banks throughout our coverage area for our October magazine. This is the fourth in the seven-part series, which is running throughout this month on BankBeat.biz.
For more than 30 years, on the last weekend of July, the town of Bruce, S.D., has buzzed with activity. The town, home to about 200 residents, draws a crowd of more than 1,000 to the annual Bruce Honey Days festival. Visitors get to sample honey fudge, watch custom floats pass by in the parade, explore the craft show, enjoy live music, and join more than 500 people playing all-day volleyball games.
In the weeks leading up to the festival, Bruce’s Richland State Bank “becomes Honey Day central,” according to Pennie Lutz, Richland’s president and CEO and a Bruce Community Club member since 1997. The bank displays the quilt for the annual raffle, headquarters the t-shirt fundraiser, prints and mails the newsletter, and provides tickets for purchase.
“It’s important for a bank to be active in a community,” said Tiffany Lewis, the bank’s vice president and compliance officer as well as longtime BCC member and Bruce native. “By having four of the five of us that work here at the bank highly involved with the Community Club, it helps show that the bank values the community and we want our community to thrive.”
Lutz and Lewis have shown creativity and a readiness to seize opportunities as they arise. Last summer, the equipment for playing music at Richland’s annual customer appreciation night was not available. So, they got live music.
“We had a resounding response from the live music at the bank appreciation supper, so we decided, ‘Let’s use this beautiful park that we have.’ We have a stage that one of the Bruce Community Club members practically built by himself that could get used more than twice a year,” Lutz said.
Since then, the stage has hosted a musician every month during the summer. The event, known as BFest, has expanded to include a farmers market of local vendors where businesses set up booths in the park and youth groups fundraise by providing food.
Lewis and Lutz praised a Bruce high schooler who recently began attending and bringing ideas to BCC meetings; “She saw an opportunity and is now involved,” Lewis said. This speaks to a broader mindset shared by the team at Richland State Bank and Bruce as a whole. Communities thrive when members see opportunities and get involved.