Straight Talk

STRAIGHT TALK by Ballard Cassady KBA President & CEO bcassady@kybanks.com

AMAZING GRACE

“...every western Kentucky banker that will help direct your gifts will have lived through this disaster with their neighbors as a first responder.” “

I doubt there’s a more recognizable hymn around the world than Amazing Grace, with its deeply personal reflections on receiving a gift of that which we cannot earn. Whether sung in a tiny church or a cathedral at a stateman’s funeral, it has always tapped a deep well of nameless emotion for me. Today, I can give it a name: gratitude.

On the morning of December 11, my Saturday morning coffee turned bitter as I watched the emerging footage of western Kentucky’s devastation. I started calling our bankers in the area without regard for the early hour, knowing that none would have slept. Sure enough, they were already joining the ranks of first responders. While on those calls, my phone was blowing up with calls from KBA staff. All of us were asking the same question: what can we do?

As the images and heart-rending interviews of victims went national, calls began to pour in from my counterparts around the country. Those calls were galvanizing. They helped move us from shock into action mode. We actually had a framework in place, the Kentucky Bankers Relief Fund, that we’d set up in 2005 for the victims of Katrina and for victims of comparable disasters all over the US and Puerto Rico. Our KBA Board immediately re-seeded the fund with $50,000. By the time I was asked to give a report on our ABA weekly zoom call two days later, that relief fund had already begun to receive pledges, from $5 to $100,000. The ABA had stepped up to help us gather money for the Relief Fund with a large chunk of that coming from its own coffers. CSI had called to commit another monumental donation. Between what we were learning about the tornado’s aftermath and the response of our banking community, I couldn’t get through that report with composure. Not in the face of such amazing grace.

By then, our bankers on the ground had begun to articulate needs: “We need water and food and clothes and” …basically everything. The first funds to be spent filled a box truck with all of the above that our staff drove to a Central City holding station. There, we saw every banker in the area knee-deep in community service of the most grueling kind, we drove a little further and realized many of them were neglecting the effects of the storm on their personal homes to meet the needs of more tragically impacted neighbors. That and dozens of conversations with bankers across the affected region helped us to see that our industry’s gifts should prioritize the needs of bank employees. Some of our early disbursements went for rent, clothes, food, transportation, etc. I never thought that baby diapers and Gatorade could make so many so happy!

As quickly as local bankers could make time to confer with us, the KBA enlisted them in an advisory group to work on smart and effective allocation of the funds you’ve given, especially those that remain to address broader community needs. With counsel from bankers in other regions of Kentucky who’d experienced comparable disasters, we know that near-term federal relief funds will come and go quickly –– but recovery will take far longer, with many needs only becoming clear down the road. While local political figures often labor with whole hearts and the best of intentions concerning disaster relief aid allocations, these battered western Kentucky towns will be well-served by having a fund that can be directed by their community bankers. By virtue of what they do every day, no one is better equipped to spend your gifts wisely and well.

But it goes beyond their capabilities, every western Kentucky banker that will help direct your gifts will have lived through this disaster with their neighbors as a first responder. And they realize these are gifts freely given by their peers, that they were shown caring and GRACE by people they may never meet. That carries a heavy responsibility, one they accept with gratitude.

I add my own gratitude –– through a few more tears –– to the bankers here in Kentucky and from all over the country, to my counterparts across America, to all who have made a huge difference in the aftermath of a historic disaster, a difference that wise stewardship will extend for many years to come.

To my fellow state executives and their banks, thank you for showing such Amazing Grace.

WESTERN KENTUCKY TORNADO IN PICTURES starting on page 16