Joe Calhoon, an author and business growth expert, will present his 1Hour2Plan speech to local business leaders and entrepreneurs next month. The luncheon is set for 11 a.m., on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at the Shewmaker Center on the NorthWest Arkansas Community College campus in Bentonville.

Calhoon has worked with leaders in more than 600 different organizations including Apple, 3M, GE, Chick-fil-A, as well as a wide range of small and midsized companies.

He is the author of three books - Prioritize!, On the Same Page, and The 1 Hour Plan for Growth.

In his 1Hour2Plan presentation, Calhoon will cover the following topics:

•Applying the 3-step system to grow an extraordinary business
•Aligning a team with shared vision, mission and values
•Setting three objectives that drive superior results
•Identifying high leverage strategies to take business to the next level
•Consistently engaging teams and focusing on what matters most.

The event is open to the public and co-sponosored by Donna Feyen, owner of More Than A Review and Jamie Smith, owner of Jamie’s Notebook.

The luncheon event, which is catered by Honeybaked Ham, will also include door prizes and networking opportunities. Tickets for the event are $35 until Sept. 4 increasing to $40 afterward. To register, visit Evenbrite

John Brown University announced this week that the College of Business has been renamed in honor of former Walmart executive Don Soderquist. 

The university also announced a new $2 million endowment for the Donald G. Soderquist College of Business, which includes a $1 million gift from the Soderquist Family Foundation and a $1 million matching gift by an anonymous donor.

The $1 million gift and $1 million match will help support endowed professor positions in key disciplines such as international business, accounting and economics, to assist the college in recruiting, retaining and developing top business faculty. Additionally, the endowment will support faculty scholarship grants for the professional development of newer faculty in the Donald G. Soderquist College of Business.
 
The anonymous match is part of the $10 Million Endowment Match program. Created in January by an anonymous donor, the program encourages endowment growth for scholarships, programs and endowed chairs.

 “Don Soderquist is known as a wise business leader who cares deeply for the growth and development of people because of his values, particularly his commitments as a Christian. JBU’s College of Business aspires to graduate business students whose lives will follow a similar trajectory of servant leadership,” said Dr. Chip Pollard, JBU president. “Naming the college in appreciation of Don’s longtime support of JBU not only honors the gift of the Soderquist Foundation, but it also offers our business graduates a model to follow. We are deeply grateful to Don for all that he has done for JBU.”

Soderquist spent more than 20 years as a leader at Walmart and became known as “the keeper of the culture” after the passing of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Soderquist served as chief operating officer and senior vice chairman during a period of exponential growth for Walmart, as the company became the largest in the world with sales of more than $200 billion.
 
“I have seen the JBU College of Business produce outstanding graduates who are sought after by leading business firms throughout the region. Our hope is that the JBU College of Business will continue that path towards excellence so that its students will compete with students from the best business schools around the nation,” said Soderquist. “My family is honored to be able to participate and support the training of the next generation of ethical leadership for the business world.”
 
Soderquist served on the JBU board of trustees from 1982 until 2009, and served as the board’s chairman from 1991 until 2002. He is currently trustee emeriti. He was inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2010. He is the founding executive of the Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics at John Brown University.

The State Chamber/Associated Industries of Arkansas is planning to launch two new websites to address workforce development needs in Arkansas.

“Intern in Arkansas” will match a student’s area of study with a business area of expertise through an online hub. According to the chamber, students will learn real-world functioning of a business. The site, interninarkansas.com, will be activated in mid-September.

“Internships play a pivotal role in a student’s success,” said Susie Marks, senior vice president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce. “The Intern in Arkansas site is being developed as an effort to retain Arkansas’s young talent in the state through internships that develop into permanent jobs. This is an effort aimed at connecting undergraduate and graduate students with existing opportunities in their chosen career field.”

Supporters to date of the “Intern in Arkansas” site include the Arkansas Department of Education, AEDC, UCA, Lyon College, Ouachita Baptist University, Clinton School of Public Service and Hendrix College.

The second site is “Dream It. Do It. Arkansas” which will launch in early October at DreamItDoItAR.com.

The State Chamber/AIA has partnered with the National Association of Manufacturing’s (NAM) Manufacturing Institute and will become one of 21 others states to launch a local site. The web site has a goal of educating young people, teachers and parents about jobs in manufacturing, according to the chamber. The site will also develop an advisory council to develop a plan to address skills gaps in Arkansas’ workforce.

“Dream It. Do It. Arkansas” is sponsored by Nucor and Rockline Industries in partnership with Bad Boy, Evraz Stratcor, Little Rock Tools and Prestolite Wire.

“Our plan with ‘Dream It. Do It. Arkansas’ is to develop collaboration between employers, our education system, our workforce development agencies and economic development organizations to address the critical shortage of qualified workers. ‘Dream It. Do It. Arkansas’ will also educate students, parents and educators on the importance of career and technical training needed to fill manufacturing jobs in order to build a competitive workforce for our state,” Marks said.

Part of the effort for the web site will tie into an upcoming focus on manufacturing in Arkansas. As part of a national effort, state business groups and Arkansas Manufacturing Solutions will host “Manufacturing Day” on Oct. 4.

Through grassroots initiatives, partnerships between schools and employers, and a web site – www.MFGDAY.com– an effort is being made to influence the perception of manufacturing careers.
www.mfgday.com/

• Synder’s-Lance acquisition

Snyder’s-Lance, Inc. has acquired Stateline Service Corp., a snack food distributor based in Massachusetts.
 Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


Snyder’s-Lance said the acquisition is part of the company’s plan to expand its national distribution network. 

The Stateline distribution system and routes will be integrated into Snyder’s-Lance network.


“We’re excited to expand our direct-store delivery distribution network through this acquisition,” said Ed Good, president of S-L Distribution Co., a subsidiary of Snyder’s-Lance. “Through closer working relationships with key retailers, we expect to build on the successful business that Stateline has developed in this important geographic area. We see an opportunity to expand our direct-store delivery network, enhance service to retail customers and develop long-term opportunities for our independent business owners in the region.”


Synder’s Lance is a supplier to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and operates a sales office in Bentonville.

• Chiquita Brands hires food safety exec
Chiquita Brands International has appointed Courtney Parker as vice-president of food safety and quality. In her new role Parker will be responsible for the company’s Fresh Express packaged salad quality assurance and quality control programs.

She also will serve as Chiquita’s liaison to regulatory agencies and other industry stakeholders.

Prior to joining Chiquita, Parker was head of quality assurance, food safety and regulatory affairs for Church Brothers and True Leaf Farms.


For seven years Parker also worked for Chiquita Brands as a senior food safety and microbiology manager, specializing in the development and implementation of quality policies and regulatory compliance programs.

Chiquita Brands International is a supplier to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and operates a sales office in Bentonville.

Much of Van Buren south of Pointer Trail was plunged into darkness Wednesday (Aug. 28) after power went out shortly after 9 p.m.

Oklahoma Gas and Electric, which provides power for much of the western section of Van Buren, said the outage was affecting 5,995 customers, including 3,104 in Van Buren, 2,125 in Muldrow, Okla., and 766 in Vian, Okla. (as of 10:45 p.m.).

According to Sgt. Mark McGraw of the Van Buren Police Department, the outage was affecting much of the city, extending from an area between Vine and Wood Streets in the southern section of the Van Buren to Pointer Trail in the northern section of the city, just south of Interstate 40. The outage also affected areas from the Arkansas River in the west to about 28th Street in the eastern section of the city.

According to Rob Ratley, Arkansas Community Affairs Manager at OG&E, the company has been able to determine the source of the power failure.

"Our outage was due to a transformer failure by Norton Alcoa, formerly St. Gobain, on Riverside Drive (in Fort Smith)," he wrote. "The outage is isolated and currently being worked by our crews and should be restored soon."

McGraw said his officers saw what appeared to be some flashes looking off toward Fort Smith, though they thought the situation had occurred near the intersection of 4th Street and Broadway, at the base of the Midland Avenue Bridge.

As for timeline for when power would be restored, an OG&E crew in Van Buren said it could be several hours before power was restored in the city. Ratley was more optimistic.

"(It) should be much shorter than that for the majority of our customers," he said. "Power has been re-routed and repairs are being made."

A recent survey by the national Chronicle of Higher Education ranks the University of Arkansas as the 13th-fastest growing public research university in the country, in terms of enrollment.

The ranking is based on enrollment figures covering the decade between 2001 and 2011. According to the survey, during that period the university’s enrollment grew 47.3% from a total of 15,752 students to 23,199.

“Everyone on this campus knows that we have been experiencing phenomenal growth since 2001,” Chancellor G. David Gearhart said in a UA statement. “This survey, however, provides us with a national context and perspective and makes our growth that much more impressive. This is a credit to our faculty and staff, who make the University of Arkansas a first-choice school for great students in Arkansas and in the rest of the country.”

University enrollment is expected to reach at least 25,000 students for the fall 2013 semester. That amounts to 59 percent growth since 2001. The increase is the result of careful planning, said Suzanne McCray, vice provost for enrollment management and dean of admissions.

"The growth reflects the University of Arkansas’ long-range plan to expand access to higher education in the state and to continue to build a national reputation of excellence that attracts students from around the world."

Only one other university in the Southeastern Conference had a faster growth rate than the University of Arkansas – the University of Alabama was ranked fourth, with a growth rate of 65.4%.

Margaret Christensen has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Schmieding Center for Health and Education in Springdale as project director for the $3.5 million Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Health Care Innovation Challenge Award.
 
Christensen will oversee the development and implementation of the award, announced in 2012, including a 40-hour family care advocate enhanced home caregiving training module. The new module, added to the existing Schmieding Caregiver Training Program, was developed to provide home caregivers with improved communication, evidenced based and person-centered care for older adults with chronic diseases. 
 
Christensen earned her doctorate in education from Oklahoma State University and a degree in nursing from St. Francis School of Nursing in Wichita, Kan. She taught health services administration in both graduate and undergraduate programs at Ohio University and also served as director of Graduate Programs at Shawnee State University in Ohio.
 
For the past seven years, Christensen has worked at the Bella Vista Health Resource Center for the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education in Bella Vista. She was named coordinator of senior community health programs there in 2010.
 
“UAMS and the Schmieding Center are most fortunate that Dr. Christensen has agreed to bring her leadership skills, nursing expertise and long experience in academic nursing education to this most important project,” said Larry D. Wright, M.D., executive director of the Schmieding Center and associate professor in the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine.
 
Developed at the UAMS Schmieding Center in Springdale, the caregiver training program offers four levels of certification for paid caregivers and two workshops for those who provide care to their family members. In 1998, the Schmieding Foundation donated $15 million to UAMS to establish and construct the center.
 
 

As visitors walk through the galleries at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, they pass by multiple sculptures placed on pedestals to highlight the artwork. 

Unseen, inside each of those pedestals is a gift from Rogers-based Daisy Outdoor Products. There are BBs bundled in 10-pound bags used as weights in the base of each sculpture pedestal to keep it secure.


“It’s a win-win solution,” said Joe Murfin, vice president of  public relations for Daisy. “We donate spare bulk steel BBs, and the museum has a ready supply to use as ballast as needed.”


Over time, Daisy has donated three barrels of BBs, or approximately 6,000 pounds.

 “We weigh and measure the BBs into approximately 10 pound bags, and then tape up the sides to form a useable package,” said Crystal Bridges lead preparator Chuck Flook. “We typically place 10 to 15 bags in a sculpture pedestal, depending on the size of the casework and specific stability concerns.”


The BBs are also sewn into smaller muslin tubes or bags to help steady objects on display in the People and Places exhibition, a collaborative project that highlights objects from the collections of several museums from around the region, including the Daisy Airgun Museum.


A bundle of BBs can be slipped inside a vase or other vessel on display to weight the base of the object and secure it against environmental vibrations.
 The BBs were most recently used in setting up the temporary exhibition Surveying George Washington.



“They’re inside a pedestal that displays a carved marble bust of George Washington,” said Flook. “If you wander our galleries though, you’ll see lots of pedestals and Daisy BBs are used as the weight to secure them all.”
 

ConAgra Foods recently capped off a transformational year acquiring Ralcorp and also growing its core business with a plant expansion in Russellville.

CEO Gary Rodkin noted in the company’s recent annual report that the integration of the Bertoli and PF Chang’s frozen meal business is one way its leveraging its strengths.

ConAgra Foods broke ground in March on a $100 million expansion to a plant in Russellville where it plans to add 80 new jobs.
 The new jobs will raise the total employed at the plant to 1,300 over the next two years.

It plans to produce Bertolli and P.F. Chang’s frozen meals at the facility. The company acquired these brands last year as part of its effort to devote more of its business to frozen foods.


The Russellville facility, in operation since 1964, produces Banquet, Healthy Choice and Marie Callender’s products.


“We’re excited to apply our transformational approach to innovation to these great brands, while taking advantage of opportunities to expand brand reach through strategic adjacencies such as desserts,” he said in the report. “We’re applying what we’ve learned through the Marie Callender’s dessert pie business — where we’re driving category growth of 5% annually — to reach new consumers.”

The first several months of ownership of Ralcorp have opened eyes for ConAgra executives, Rodkin said.

“Through our new, larger scale, we are better positioned when it comes to product sourcing and supply chain efficiencies,” he noted. “We’ve already begun to realize some of these synergies and expect to continue to identify additional sales-related opportunities as the integration progresses. We expect to achieve $300 million in annual cost savings by the end of fiscal year 2017.”

ConAgra also succeeded in its goal of expanding internationally, Rodkin said. In the fiscal 2013 annual report, he noted that net sales of Act II popcorn increased 10% in the 13 weeks ended March 24, according to data from Information Resources Inc., a market research firm based in Chicago.

Two other international success stories were ConAgra’s affiliate, Agro Tech Foods, in India and Lamb Weston.

Agro Tech in fiscal 2013 launched peanut butter under the Sun Drop brand and is in the process of building a facility to locally produce the peanut butter in India.

Meanwhile, ConAgra is expanding its Boardman, Ore., Lamb Weston facility to meet growing demand, especially from international markets. Rodkin said Lamb Weston sells to 2,500 customers in more than 100 countries, and in fiscal 2013 Lamb Weston’s international sales increased nearly 9%.

“We’re projecting continued, dynamic international growth in the future,” he said.

ConAgra is a supplier to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and operates a sales office in Northwest Arkansas.

Lauren Ray, a graduate of the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, has been named the state’s 2013 “Student Conservationist of the Year” by the Arkansas Wildlife Federation.
 
Ray, 22, of Fayetteville was honored at the Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards Banquet in Bryant on Sat., Aug. 24. She is a 2013 summa cum laude graduate of the University of the Ozarks, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology.
 
Ray is the education and outreach coordinator for the Illinois River Watershed Partnership in Cave Springs.
 
“Lauren has demonstrated an unrivaled dedication to the natural environment in Arkansas, and she does a wonderful job of coordinating our educational camps, workshops and events to help teach people about the Illinois River Watershed, local wildlife, volunteerism, outdoor safety and water conservation,” said Dr. Delia Haak, executive director of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership. “We are so lucky Lauren is part of our team.”
 
Ray was named the University of the Ozarks’ “Most Exceptional Outdoor Leader” for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years. She won the 2013 “Hurie Award,” which is the highest honor a University of Ozarks student can receive.
 
From 2011 to 2013, Ray served as president of the Ozarks Outbackers, a student organization participating in conservation-related community service projects.  From 2012 to 2013, she was president of the Planet Club, a student group focused on promoting sustainability, conservation and environmental consciousness.
 
She has spent numerous months abroad, studying conservation biology in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, rainforest ecology in the Colombian Amazon and Mayan agriculture in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. She recently completed a study trip focused on the history of the U.S. National Park System, emphasizing the ideals of conservation and preservation in America since the early 1900s.
 
Ray is the daughter of David and Lisa Ray, and the granddaughter of Hugh Benson, all of Springdale.
 

Leslie Edgar, associate professor in the agricultural education, communications and technology department, has been named director of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences office of international programs at the University of Arkansas.

Edgar will serve as the primary contact for Bumpers College students interested in international experiences, will create awareness of international opportunities associated with their majors, and inform students of funding opportunities on campus to help offset expenses.

She will work with the UA office of study abroad and international exchange. She will also assist Dean Mike Vayda in setting policy and direction for international experiences to enhance marketability and professional career objectives for students.

“Leslie will be fantastic in this role,” said Vayda. “We were looking for someone to lead the program who will develop career opportunities for our students, and I am confident she will connect students with opportunities that will best serve them and our corporate partners.”

Edgar replaces food science professor Andy Proctor, who served in the role since 2011.

 “I plan to work one-on-one with faculty and students to identify premier programs and target countries for growth. I am looking forward to working with both experienced and interested faculty to identify areas for program improvement, diversification, and, if possible, growth.”

In 2012, Edgar initiated an international student exchange and internship program with the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and the University of Ghent. The program has been featured as an exemplary example of a study abroad experience in the college.

Edgar earned a doctorate in agricultural leadership, education and communications from Texas A&M University in 2007. She holds a master’s and bachelor’s degree in animal science, both from Utah State University.

She has garnered 23 awards for teaching and scholarly activities. Edgar received the John W. White Outstanding Teaching Award in 2013, one of the highest teaching recognitions at the university. She also received the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Teaching Award of Merit in 2013.
 

America's Car-Mart Inc. opened its 127th dealership this week continuing its expansion in Georgia.

The dealership is located in Covington, Ga. and marks the company’s third store in the Peach State. It’s also the third store opening this fiscal year.

Car-Mart continues to grow its store base by 10% annually, filling in markets across the southeast where the buy here, pay here used-car business already has brand recognition.

Shares of America’s Car-Mart have slid 10% since the end of May, as the company’s last two quarters raised concerns over more competition from other subprime lenders, that has forced Car-Mart to tweak its own payment terms to keep its best customers.

Car-Mart shares were trading at $41.02 in the morning session on Friday (Aug. 30), down 13 cents from the prior day. Over the past 52 weeks the share price has ranged from $35.89 to $50.59.

CEO Hank Henderson said the company’s growth strategy will continue as the financial balance sheet and existing back office infrastructure are strong enough to support the expansion.

The name has changed at the 66 Federal Credit Union in Springdale. The financial institution is now Truity Credit Union, the board announced this week.

“Our new name, Truity Credit Union, stands squarely on our 74-year foundation of trust and integrity. We are proud of our rich tradition and history with Tyson Foods. The new name will convey that we serve any employer groups as well as help position the credit union for future growth and financial strength,” said CEO Kelly Diven.

Truity Credit Union has $698 million in assets and serves more than 62,00 members worldwide.

Festiva Hospitality Group said it has purchased new properties in Arkansas and Missouri as it expands its real estate portfolio throughout the Ozarks. 

The Greens in Bella Vista, Cherokee Village at Lake Thunderbird and Los Logos in Hot Springs were recently purchased by Festiva.

Other recent purchases include:
Branson Yacht Club on Tablerock Lake and Stonebridge Village in Branson, Mo.

Festiva is a vacation ownership company. These properties were built and sold as time share investments, but they are also available as non-member rentals.

Consumers sentiment dipped slightly in August from the prior month, but American’s were still more upbeat than a a year ago, according to the University of Michigan Sentiment Index released today (Aug. 30).

The final reading of the Thomson Reuters/ University of Michigan survey was 82.1 in August, retreating from 85.1 in July — a six-year high.

Consumers were more optimistic than economists expected, outpacing their forecast reading of 80.5.

"Most of the late August gain was due to more favorable income expectations, with consumers expecting the largest income gains in nearly five years, although the median expected increase was just 0.9%, less than the expected rate of inflation," survey director Richard Curtin noted in the release.

They survey found that sentiment varied among income levels with households below $75,000 growing more pessimistic in the face of higher interest rates and stagnant income growth.

These concerns helped to drive the consumer expectations downward.

Economists fear consumer sentiment could weaken if higher interest rates start to slow momentum in a housing revival that has been one of the brightest spots in the overall U.S. recovery.

Inflation remains low around 3% for the one-year period, while the longer term inflation outlook was 2.9%, according to Reuters.

 

Nordex USA, Inc. will repay more than $2.5 million to Arkansas and Jonesboro in grants received to establish its North American wind turbine manufacturing facilities in Craighead County, noted a Friday (Aug. 30) press release from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

Nordex announced earlier this year that, as a result of uncertainty in the wind energy market in North America, it would be consolidating its manufacturing in Germany and maintaining the Jonesboro location as its American base for service and warehousing and the Nordex Academy for training staff and customers.

“Nordex has been a dedicated partner in moving wind manufacturing forward and creating Arkansas jobs. Unfortunately, that dedication has not been shared by the United States Congress, which repeatedly fails to establish a long-term policy for wind energy,” Gov. Mike Beebe said in the statement. “But even now, under these unfortunate circumstances, Nordex continues working with Arkansas to ensure that taxpayer incentives are properly repaid. Hopefully, the U.S. government will act more pragmatically in the future and Nordex will again ramp up production in Jonesboro.”

A total of $3.91 million of the Governor’s Quick Action Fund was paid out for the project – $2.51 million for site preparation, a training facility and training expenses, and another $1.4 million to Jonesboro for rail and road work which remain as infrastructure improvements. The state will recoup nearly $2.31 million and Jonesboro will get $204,814.

Taken into account is the fact Nordex earlier returned to the state more than $263,000 it received in an earned Create Rebate payment when it realized it would not be able to move forward and layoffs were imminent.

“We receive a lot of questions about clawbacks,” said Grant Tennille, executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. “The process works, and in this case rather quickly. When it happens that we need to use clawbacks, we will negotiate keeping the unique circumstances of every project in mind.”
 
With this agreement, all draws against the committed Quick Action Funds stop and the balances will be used for future projects.

Sparks Health System announced Friday (Aug. 30) the promotion of Shelly Weilenman, RN, MSN, CENP, to the position of Arkansas market chief nursing executive, effective Sept. 3, 2013.

Weilenman serves as administrator & chief nursing executive at Summit Medical Center in Van Buren. Her newly expanded position gives her oversight of nursing at both Summit Medical Center and Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith.

Weilenman brought nearly 30 years of health care experience with her when she joined the Summit staff in October of 2012.

“I’m excited to embrace this opportunity,” said Weilenman, adding, “I am passionate about both the science and the art of nursing. I look forward to working with my colleagues at Sparks in our collective mission to provide this region’s best nursing care.”
  
Weilenman earned a master’s and bachelor’s degree in nursing with honors from the University of Mississippi School of Nursing. She also received an associate degree from North Arkansas Community College in Harrison, Ark., and she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau international nursing honor society. A registered nurse, Weilenman is also certified in Executive Nursing Practice by the American Organization of Nurse Executives.

Weilenman also serves on the Board of Directors for the Van Buren Chamber of Commerce and on the University of Arkansas Fort Smith’s Advisory Committee on Nursing.

Summit Medical Center’s CFO, Anthony Brooks, will work as interim administrator at Summit until Weilenman’s successor is named. 

Sparks Health System includes Sparks Regional Medical Center, Sparks Clinic (an employed multi-specialty physician group), PremierCare (a physician-hospital organization), Sparks Home Health and the fully hospital-integrated Marvin Altman Fitness Center.

Summit Medical Center is a fully accredited, 103-bed acute care hospital. The medical staff includes numerous specialties such as Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Emergency Medicine, Family and Internal Medicine, Bariatric and General Surgery, Orthopedic and Plastic Surgery, Pediatrics and Wound Care. 

Arvest Bank on Sept. 4 will launch its two-month, bank-wide effort to provide at least one million meals to local, hungry families. The initiative will continue through Nov. 2, and culminates just before Thanksgiving when donations are presented to 53 recipient organizations who feed the hungry in their communities.

Arvest Bank’s 1 Million Meals initiative challenges bank associates, customers and communities to participate in fundraising efforts and nonperishable food drives to fight hunger in the more than 120 communities the bank serves. The timing of the initiative is critical as one in six American households reported food hardship, or not having adequate funds to provide enough food for their family, in 2012.1

Arvest Bank in Fort Smith will begin its part of the effort to provide one million meals to those in need with a reception from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  on Wednesday, Sept. 4, at the Arvest Tower located at 5000 Rogers Ave. Anyone who brings in a donation (food or money) during the reception times will get a discount coupon to Bob Evans restaurant.

Donations made at Arvest branches in Fort Smith, Van Buren, Alma, Greenwood, Poteau and Sallisaw will go to the Community Services Clearinghouse's Meals for Kids backpack program.

Donations made at Arvest branches in Russellville, Clarksville, Paris and Mena will go to Arkansas Rice Depot's Food for Kids backpack program. The backpack programs focus on providing weekend food for children in area schools. The backpack programs’ wish lists include individual serving-size juice, cereal, pudding, fruit cups as well as meat sticks or Vienna sausages, crackers and other individual serving snacks.

Local residents may help by dropping off nonperishable backpack-friendly food items or making monetary donations at any of the 24 Arvest branches in the Fort Smith/River Valley area or calling (866) 952-9523 to contribute. In addition, every Arvest branch is selling 1 Million Meals paper plates for $1 throughout the two months. Every dollar raised through 1 Million Meals provides the equivalent of five meals for local, hungry families.

In 2012, the bank-wide effort raised more than 1.38 million meals, up from the 1.2 million meals in 2011.

“Here in Fort Smith and the River Valley, every dollar donated or nonperishable food item contributed stays local and benefits support the Community Services Clearinghouse and Arkansas Rice Depot’s backpack programs. We are honored to join these organizations in providing meals to hungry families,” Craig Rivaldo, Arvest Bank president and CEO of the Fort Smith/River Valley region, said in a statement.

Arvest Bank’s 53 recipient organizations were each selected on a local basis. 

Youth Bridge received a $2,000 donation from Target to continue its art therapy program for the girls and boys at its emergency shelters. Youth Bridge depends on a variety of psychotherapy services such as art therapy to create a level of trust and accomplishment among clients. 

Art therapy uses materials such as paint, oil pastels, markers, clay or crayons as a means of self-expression. It is often a solution for a teen that has been in a difficult situation such as divorce, abuse, or violence in the home or has struggled with an addiction or eating disorders.

Creating art can help reduce stress, build social skills and solve behavioral management problems. Many students of art therapy often find that this helps give them a new sense of perspective on their situation.

In addition, the results of clinically managed art therapy programs on average show an overall reduction with anger, anxiety, addictions, depression and other mental health disorders by 30% while showing an increase in self-esteem of 50%. 

Since 1946, Target has given 5% of its profit, which today equals more than $4 million a week to local communities like Northwest Arkansas.
 

A recent survey by STORES asked consumers to identify their favorite online retailers. Consumers were simply asked which websites they shopped most often.


Rankings were based on the total number of responses to the following open-ended questions: “What website do you shop most often for apparel items?” and “What website do you shop most often for non-apparel items?” 


STORES magazine reports that 58% of the survey respondents cited Amazon.com as the “most preferred online merchant” for both apparel and non-apparel items. 

Amazon garnered three times the votes of the No. 2 choice — Walmart.com, according to the survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. 


“There are a number of things that resonate with shoppers — from the breadth of the assortment to the efficiencies built into the purchasing process, the cross-sell and up-sell merchandising tactics and the value proposition,”  Kim Ann King, chief marketing officer for SiteSpect, said in the STORES report.


The top 10 favorite retailers
1. Amazon.com
2. Walmart.com
3. eBay.com
4. Kohls.com
5. BestBuy.com
6. Target.com
7, JCPenney.com
8. Macys.com
9. Sears.com
10. OldNavy.com

“People choose online shopping sites for various reasons, but new, innovative and personalized features seem to be what brings consumers back to their favorite retailer’s website time and time again,” said Pam Goodfellow, director for Prosper Insights & Analytics.

She said many of these Top 50 have rewritten the rules when it comes to retaining and attracting online customers which will likely make them a topic of conversation for a long time. Belk.com debuted at No. 39 and Hot Topic landed the No. 43 spot, both cracked the “Top 50” for the first time.