OTTAWA — Arvest Bank has received the Award for Collaborative Excellence from the Kansas Association of Community Action Programs. The bank received the award for its work with ECKAN. Since coming into the Ottawa market, Arvest has been supportive of ECKAN and its programs, ECKAN CEO Richard Jackson said. Ottawa bank president Ed York has a long history of working with the agency, he said. Following the Osawatomie flood in 2007 in which ECKAN lost six low-income housing units, York helped ECKAN restructure its mortgage and rebuild the units, Jackson said. More recently, York nominated ECKAN for a $5,000 grant from the Walton, which has helped provide movie passes to low-income teenagers at Christmas and savings bonds for winners of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr., essay contest. Jackson said Arvest is in the middle of a campaign to raise 1 million meals in their service area and is supporting the Franklin County food pantries.
Wednesday, June 29, 4 p.m.
