After her first day of chemotherapy, the woman was depressed — rightly so. She planned to head straight home and collapse.
Her doctor suggested she stop by the store to buy popcorn, then go home and watch a good movie. She resisted, but realized she really needed cat food.
As she entered a Birmingham Winn-Dixie grocery store, two smiling employees of First Horizon Bank walked over and gave her a $25 Visa gift card.
“She just kind of started tearing up,” says Millie Rudder, vice president and retail market manager in Birmingham, as she relates the story. “She said, ‘You don’t know what this means to me. It’s just amazing on a day like this.’”
That was just one of hundreds of acts of kindness spread across Alabama like a cozy quilt in a campaign of good deeds carried out by employees of First Horizon Bank.
As part of the celebration of the bank’s 160th anniversary, employees of First Horizon gave away 1,600 $25 gift cards and fanned out to undertake hundreds more nice gestures during Random Acts of Kindness Week Feb. 11-17.
Bank executives say it’s just part of showing appreciation to the areas they serve.
“We are excited to mark our 160th anniversary by actively expressing our gratitude to the communities that have supported us throughout the years,” says Beth Ardoin, chief communications officer at First Horizon Bank, in explaining the initiative.
Alex Morton, executive vice president and head of Birmingham operations for the bank, emphasizes that the card giveaway was just one component of a broader goodwill effort.
“Across the whole 12-state franchise we gave back to the community both with doing acts of kindness as well as giving gift cards at various times,” says Morton.
“This was truly a random act across multiple ways to do it,” he adds.
“Each banking center was given a certain amount of gift cards to give out,” explains Rudder, but they did other nice things, too.
Those involved say that associates enjoyed coming up with creative and spontaneous ways to spread good cheer and maybe prompt a few smiles or tears of gratitude.
“It was a fun week,” says Morton.
Bank associates “had so much fun with it,” agrees Rudder. Some gave Lifesaver candy — pun intended — to first responders. Others passed out treats and water bottles to parents in school pick-up lines.
“It gave an opportunity for us that are usually inside in banking centers to get out a little more and be able to serve,” says Rudder.
Some associates surprised citizens by paying for gas or groceries. Others delivered unexpected flowers and gifts. And some served lunch at a retirement community.
Headquartered in Memphis, First Horizon has 12 locations in Alabama in Birmingham, Fairhope, Fultondale, Hoover, Huntsville, Madison, Mobile, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills.
As part of the random acts initiative in Birmingham in particular, bank commercial teams prepared appreciation baskets for local businesses to offer encouragement during their busiest times.
In Huntsville, the Downtown Rescue Mission received personal items for the Owens House, a shelter for homeless women and children. At one banking center, 80-year-old cleaning woman Ann Gaines received a gift card in recognition of her ever-present smile and energy.
Also in the Huntsville area, bank associates delivered a gift card to the Rocket City Trash Pandas baseball team mascot, Sprocket, as he visited local businesses. They donated food and supplies to the Greater Huntsville Humane Society. Employees of one professional accounting business enjoyed free doughnuts from the bank as they geared up for their busiest season.
In the Mobile area, First Horizon associates Lisha Klumpp and Lauren Vaughn gave a gift card to “Miss Carolyn,” a longtime employee of the Fairhope Piggly Wiggly.
Virginia Knight, First Horizon’s vice president in Mobile, took a girl from the Boys and Girls Club to buy her first prom dress — the first dress she ever owned, in fact.
Rudder went shopping with them. “She stepped out in this beautiful gown,” she says. “She just lit up the room with her smile.”
Although this was the first time for the week-long card giveaway, bankers say it falls in line with the bank’s philanthropic philosophy in general.
First Horizon has spearheaded community involvement initiatives in the past, Morton says, but “nothing to the extent we’re doing it now to celebrate our 160th year anniversary.
“Our intent was really to go bring joy into our markets and our communities. That’s what we were focused on, to let our employees give back,” he says. Toward that goal, “we were extremely successful.”
“One of our passions is giving back to the community,” Morton adds. “We’ve always been active in the community, volunteering and giving of our time and talents.
“Last year we gave almost 1,000 volunteer hours across the state,” he says. “We’ll always do that.”
As one of the oldest banks in the country, what is today known as First Horizon has served clients through the American Civil War, two world wars, financial panics and the Great Depression.
In 1864, Ohio businessman Frank S. Davis traveled to Memphis to open its first national bank — First National Bank of Memphis. The bank continued to operate during a yellow fever epidemic in 1878 when many people fled the city.
On its 100th anniversary, First National moved into a 25-story corporate headquarters at 165 Madison in Memphis, where it remains today. In 1977, the name changed to First Tennessee.
In 2004, First Horizon National Corp. became the parent company name. A 2017 merger with Capital Bank made First Tennessee the fourth-largest regional bank in the Southeast. Two years later it began operations under the First Horizon brand name.
When First Horizon National Corp. merged with Louisiana-based IberiaBank Corp. in 2020, it created one of the top 25 banks in the country in deposits. The “National” was dropped from its name in late 2020.
With $81.7 billion in assets as of December 2023, First Horizon operates in 12 states. Fortune and Forbes magazines have recognized it as one of the nation’s best employers and a Top 10 Most Reputable U.S. Bank.
First Horizon has roughly 7,300 employees in 418 locations, primarily in the Southeast but as far north as New York.
Deborah Storey is a Huntsville-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.
This article appears in the July 2024 issue of Business Alabama.
