One person requesting your autograph will make you feel good. Eighty-one people asking?
That will make you feel like a rock star.
“It has changed me,” said Cheryl Howell.
But not in the way you might think.
“I’ve always tried to be kind and relish in the fact that I’m blessed, but we all get busy,” said Howell, a Commercial Banking relationship manager and market executive with Regions Bank. “This has made me more aware.”
Howell’s unexpected celebrity moment resulted from an idea hatched over lunch.
“I asked Rhonda to meet to hear more about what she does,” she said.
Rhonda is Rhonda Jones, director of Adult Development Center Services with BOST Inc., an organization serving 300 children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities across Arkansas. BOST is a 35-year bank customer. More than that, BOST is a community partner. In January, Regions presented its latest donation of $5,000 to the nonprofit as part of the bank’s celebration of its new downtown Fort Smith branch.
Rhonda Jones
At lunch, Jones mentioned she’d invited many local businesses to visit BOST clients to help them create stronger connections to the outside world.
“I kept hitting one brick wall after another,” said Jones. “I’d say, ‘Give me 30 minutes, give me an hour, just one time.’ I would hear back from people who said, ‘Rhonda, I really appreciate what you’re doing, but I just don’t have time for that.’”
Until Howell.
“Rhonda had me at, ‘They don’t feel like they’re part of something,’” said Howell. “The empathy in me had to fix it. We concocted a plan of how I was going to tell everyone they were going to BOST.”
And by everyone, Howell meant her Regions Fort Smith teammates.
The plan? Regions associates would visit BOST once a month for an hour to share something they enjoy.
For Howell, that passion is journaling.
“I’ve been journaling for over 30 years,” she said. “It’s been amazing for me; it helps you get in touch with your feelings and connect the dots. It’s a very healing process.”
I’ve been journaling for over 30 years. It’s been amazing for me; it helps you get in touch with your feelings and connect the dots. It’s a very healing process.
Cheryl Howell, Commercial Banking relationship manager and market executive with Regions Bank
Howell witnessed that healing begin to occur firsthand during her visit.
“Can journaling help when I’m out in public and see people who look at me like I’m less than?” one participant asked.
“Can journaling help me when I’m angry life is like this?” posed another.
At the end of the hour, Howell invited everyone to the front of the room to receive their own journal.
And that’s when the autograph moment occurred.
“One gentleman asked, ‘Would you sign my journal?” said Howell. “I then noticed everyone had formed a line for me to sign theirs. I told them, ‘I’m going to write something you can go back and read that will remind you how special you are.’”
But it was Howell who came away feeling even more special.
“I had so much gratitude in that moment,” she said.
Rob Fann, manager of Regions’ downtown Fort Smith branch, received the same warm welcome when he presented in December.
Rob Fann
“BOST’s clients are energetic and inquisitive,” said Fann. “They are an incredible group of people who often teach us more about ourselves than we are teaching them.”
What was Fann teaching? Photography.
“I showed them several of my cameras, which ranged from old, fully manual film to higher-end digital cameras,” he explained. “We talked about the value of using an old, ‘obsolete’ medium like film because it requires you to slow down, see the beauty and capture the moment the way you see it in your mind’s eye.”
Fianna Hills branch manager Glen Russell has taken his baseball collection to BOST. Commercial Banking relationship specialist Brandon Michael shared his collection of guitars and additional vintage items. Fort Smith Central branch manager Anthony Merino is introducing his newfound golf passion this month. The presenter list keeps growing.
Glen Russell
“What you find out is what’s important to our people outside our four walls of the bank,” said Howell. “It opens a window into who people are.”
And Jones will tell you it’s opened a window into who BOST’s clients are, too.
“Our clients are engaged, they’re listening, they’re asking genuine questions,” she said. “People typically get nervous about public speaking, but once you just settle in, you see they’re not judging you on your little mess ups because we all have those. They see so much more.”
The speaker series that’s emerged fills Howell with pride.
“To be part of a culture where we place so much emphasis on being part of the community is a blessing,” she said. “The bank wants us to volunteer. It’s a privilege to be able to do it, and it’s a privilege to work for a company that encourages you to do it.”
Jones’ conversation with Howell has filled her with hope.
“When we began this program, it was to engage our clients more by bringing a little bit of community to them,” Jones said. “But it’s become so much more than that. Cheryl has put a dream of mine into reality. I will forever appreciate what Cheryl and the Regions team are doing for the team we serve. She really is a rock star.”