In it for the long haul Three generations of community bankers stay true to their calling A direct mail promo video and a human resources orientation video for a venerable Illinois community bank.

Click to play video: Homestar Bank Promotional Video Intro Homestar Bank Promotional Video Outro Requires a JavaScript enabled browser.

The forerunner of Homestar Bank was founded in 1946 by a handful of families in Manteno, Illinois. Now a bedroom suburb of Chicago, at the time, Manteno was a small rural town that needed a financial anchor. As it and the surrounding communities have grown, they have been fortunate to be able to depend on a bank that has resisted the trend of mergers and consolidation in the banking industry. Sixty years after its founding, the same families continue to manage the bank today.

At Angle Park, we were very impressed by the exemplary service we witnessed at branch after branch we shot in. Tellers knew their customers by name. Greeters literally jumped to their feet to meet customers at the door. Loan officers told stories of holding the branch open late to make sure customers could make their closings. But the bank's infrastructure was equally impressive. A full data center and IT staff offered the latest in online banking, and new branches were being built and opened as we shot. We quickly realized that our job would simply be to capture how Homestar walks the fine line between modernization and old-fashioned customer service.

Based in interviews with the founding families, employees, and community members, we delivered two videos from the same pool of footage shot during the Summer and Fall of 2004. The 9-minute Promo Video has been used on local cable television, as a direct mail DVD, and is played on the bank's website and in its branches. It tells the story of how Francis W. Smith founded the bank, how it has grown through the years, and how it has impacted the lives of people in the communities it serves. The Orientation Video is used internally to explain the benefits of employment to prospective and new employees, and to steep them in the history of the bank so they can understand its tradition and values.

New signs are popping up throughout North Central Illinois, but the small town community bank values remain the same.



The second and third generation guardians of those values.



In 1946, good character and $25,000 cash could get you your very own bank charter.



As Chicago's bedroom suburbs expand Southwest, Homestar has become the largest home lender in Kankakee County.



Sunset in Bourbonnais from the back of a truck.