Martha Smith has been chosen as the Peoples Bank & Trust Volunteer of the Quarter for her volunteer efforts as the Special Olympics Athletic Director (Head Coach) for Kids are Kids, Inc.

She and her husband, Jerry, became involved with Special Olympics and Kids are Kids in the mid 1990’s when their son began to participate as an athlete. They attended all of his events as he participated in bowling and track and field. In 2007, basketball was also added as an event due to interest from the participants.

Assistant vice president of consumer banking Judy Prasun (pruh-zoon) explains that the volunteer of the quarter program was created to acknowledge the hard work of individuals helping out their fellow community members.

[audio:jprasun83a.mp3]Listen to Prasun's comments here.[/audio]

Martha became a registered coach about 10 years ago and became Head Coach in 2005. Some of her responsibilities as head coach are keeping a current roster of athletes and coaches, making sure all paperwork for athletes and coaches are up to date, making sure all medical records are in order for the participants, filing all registration forms for the events annually, arranging transportation, planning each event and assigning coaches to groups of athletes to ensure they are at their events on time and planning the athletic banquets.

Martha noted that she has a lot of help from the wonderful Kids are Kids team of coaches and board of directors who help to make sure things go smoothly. She has received much help through the years from the Area Director with Illinois Special Olympics. The athletes are the reason they all do this. They are fantastic athletes who train hard and love what they do. They are inspirational. Two of the area athletes serve as registered coaches when they are not competing. Several others are very helpful at events.

In honor of her service, Peoples Bank has donated to the Kids are Kids, Inc. and Ms. Smith’s name will be placed on a plaque to be displayed at the bank.

Peoples Bank & Trust is an independent Community Bank with six offices located in Pana, Taylorville, Charleston, Altamont, Tower Hill and Springfield. Peoples is a full service bank offering outstanding customer service to consumers, small business, and farmers in Central Illinois. People First Bancshares, Inc., with corporate offices in Pana, Illinois, is the holding company for Peoples Bank & Trust.