STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Chances are that Karla Wicks and her colleagues at Mountain West Bank are going to feel yesterday afternoon’s work today.
Nine Mountain West employees spent the afternoon making deposits of compost in flower beds and staining teepee poles at Sawtooth Botanical Garden, instead of cashing clients’ checks and helping customers with deposits of the checking variety.
Staff from 20 Mountain West Bank offices in Idaho, Washington and Utah took part in the bank’s ninth annual Day of Caring, sprucing up public housing and landmarks such as the Sawtooth Botanical Garden.
The bank’s Ketchum and Hailey staff chose to offer their services at the garden while Heather Parton manned the drive-through at the Hailey branch and Susie Alfs kept things going at the Ketchum branch.
“We love our jobs, but it’s always nice to get out and help in other ways, too,” said Sarah Gray, the customer service manager at Mountain West Bank’s Hailey branch.
This is the second time that Mountain West bank employees have volunteered at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden.
Two years ago they had to dig through four inches of fresh snow to plant bulbs. This year looked like it might end up the same way, as the first measurable snowfall of fall crowned the mountains north of Ketchum.
But the garden was dry by the time they arrived, sporting instead a colorful crop of red roses, white hydrangeas, purple gaillardia, lavender cranebill, pink hollyhock, veronica, sedum and asters that had bloomed for the first time the day before.
“It’s neat for us because it gets us outside and out of our normal routine,” said Bryan Furlong, vice president of commercial lending. “Not that banking isn’t fun...”
Kathy Noble, who oversees the garden’s maintenance, said volunteers are always appreciated.
“We’re not quite ready to winterize--we have two weddings in October so we can’t start cutting back things. But they’ve definitely helped with some of the work that needed done,” she said.
Mountain West Bank was founded in 1993 in Coeur d’Alene. It operates 23 branches, financial service centers and lending centers.