Arvest is pleased to announce the addition of two new merchants to our Arvest Rewards gift card program.  The Zappos.com e-Gift Certificate and Amazon.com* Gift Card are now available for redemption.   These join current popular retail options such as Walmart, iTunes, Target and BestBuy.

Use your Arvest debit or credit card for everyday purchases to accumulate reward points in one combined household pool.  This means you accumulate points faster and earn rewards sooner!  These two merchants are an exciting addition to the program, and join over 40 other retail, dining and travel options. 

As a reminder, it only takes 7,500 points to get a $75 gift card to one of the following merchants:

Shopping
Barnes & Noble, Bath & BodyWorks, Best Buy, Bloomingdale's, Borders, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dillard's,  Footlocker, iTunes, JCPenney, J.Crew, Kohl's, Lowe's, Macy's, Old Navy, Omaha Steaks, Sears, Target, The Home Depot, Toys R Us, Staples, Waldenbooks, Walmart

Restaurants
Applebee's, Bahama Breeze,  Chili's, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday's

Travel
American Airlines, AirTran, Avis, Best Western, Budget, Carnival Cruise Lines, Continental Airlines, Hyatt, JetBlue, Marriott, Northwest Airlines, Shell Gas Card, Southwest Airlines, Travelocity

Points are earned by using your enrolled Arvest debit cards and Arvest credit cards, the more you use your cards instead of checks or cash, the more points you can earn.  Be sure to tell the cashier to ring your transaction as a ‘credit’ anytime you use your debit or credit card to ensure you earn the most possible points.  For more information on Arvest Rewards, hit the website.  To sign up, visit or call a nearby Arvest Bank location.

Arvest Bank and Resource Technical Services, Inc.(RTS), have no affiliation whatsoever with any of the merchant award providers and carriers listed on this page, make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied and assume no responsibility for fitness of purpose for these awards listed on this page and any award provider or carrier may be removed at anytime without notice. No merchant listed on this page is a sponsor or co-sponsor of this promotional program. Arvest Bank and RTS are not responsible for cancellation or any services and/or gift card/certificate refunds from any merchants or carriers that may cease operations.
*Amazon.com Gift Cards ("GCs") sold by Resource Technical Services, an authorized reseller of Amazon.com Gift Cards. Amazon, Amazon.com, and the Amazon.com logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Amazon.com Gift Cards may be used only to purchase eligible goods on Amazon.com or its affiliated website Endless.com. GCs cannot be redeemed for purchases of gift certificates or cards, or for items from some third party sellers. GC's cannot be reloaded, resold, transferred for value, redeemed for cash, or applied to any other account. For complete conditions, see www.amazon.com/gc-legal. GCs are issued and © 2010 by ACI Gift Cards, Inc., a Washington company. 
 

The MLK Day reception at Arvest in Fayetteville was a resounding success. Arvest Fayetteville associates estimate there were more than 200 people in attendance. Photographer Andy Shupe and reporter Rose Anne Pearce of the NWA Times were present to capture the entire reception. Brother Irvine Williams, Jr. spoke about the importance of freedom.  Additionally, attendees were treated to the sounds of the Holcomb Elementary School Honor Choir, performing under the direction of Paula Aldama.

Lyndsay Ho, a 5th grade student at Vandergriff Elementary, read her winning speech as part of the Arvest Fayetteville Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration on Monday. The purpose of the annual speaking contest is to encourage students to think critically about Dr. King's legacy in the community.

Below, you can read Lyndsay's winning speech, as well as some photos from Monday's events.

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.  He was called M.L.  He shared a house with his parents, sister, and brother. They lived on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. His father had the job of a minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church. At the table at dinner one night, M.L. was taught a very important rule. It was to treat all people with respect.  Not everyone in Atlanta knew that rule. As he was growing up M.L. saw that black and white people were treated differently. They could not share the same things.  M.L. was very confused. Why couldn’t black and white people have the same rights? He decided that he wanted to change that when he was grown up. So M.L. decided to work very hard. He worked so hard, that he went to college at the age of 15. Martin never stopped thinking about how to change the world.

He decided to be a preacher, like his father. He went to a school in Boston.  While he was there, he met a girl named Coretta Scott.

In 1963, Martin stood before the crowd. “ I have a dream," he exclaimed. “I have a dream that one day little black boys and little black girls will be able to hold hands with little white boys and little white girls and walk together as brothers and sisters.” That changed the minds of some people. Some people though, didn’t agree with his words. Those treated him meanly. They put him in jail, threw a bomb at his house, and called him names. Martin’s ideas were to handle things peacefully. In 1964, he was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sadly, in 1968 Martin Luther King went to Tennessee to help some people. While he was standing on his balcony, someone shot and killed him.  The world was angry and sad because somebody had done that to such a kind man.

Now we celebrate Martin Luther King Day to remember him.

Glenna Peters, a teller at the Fayetteville, Ark., downtown location, is celebrating her 38th year with the bank.  Glenna has served our team and customers faithfully since 1972 and has a group of customers that will wait patiently in line for Ms. Glenna to take care of their needs.  Congratulations on 38 years and thank you for all you have done for Arvest and our customers!
 

Arvest Bank Fayetteville will be hosting its annual Martin Luther King Jr. reception today at 3:00 p.m. at the downtown location on the square.  This years speaker is Brother Irvine Williams Jr, of Combs Street Church of Christ.  The Holcomb Honors Choir will provide entertainment. 

Lyndsay Ho, a 5th grader at Vandergriff Elementary, will be reading her winning essay about Dr. King's life and his influence today.  Refreshments will be provided.

Habitat for Humanity of Washington County is hosting a family event that will benefit their fantastic organizaton. The Harlem Ambassadors will be in town to play against the Habitat Hoops Stars in an exhibition basketball game.  This is a wonderful opportunity for you and your family to have an affordable evening out together.  

The Ambassadors put on a great show and promote the message to "Stay in School/Stay off Drugs."

When: Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 7:00 p.m.

Where: Har-Ber High School, Springdale              

Tickets are $5 in advance or $7 at the door. Children 5 and under are free with no ticket needed

Please call the Habitat office to order tickets:  (479) 575-9696 or click here to see Habitat for Humanity's website for more details.

Arvest associates making up the Habitat Hoops Stars include Matt Atkins, Titus Laney, Josh Guin, Anna Guod, Pierce Baker, Kevin Newton, Raul Avila from Springdale and Clement Ogunyemi, Tony Nguyen, Keith Bowles, Eileen Jennings, Spencer Adams and Micah Larru from Fayetteville.

The harsh weather and holiday season couldn’t keep the hard workers from making progress on Springfield’s newest branch on Chestnut and National. Buried underneath all that snow all the ground concrete poured and all of the pillars and the roof is going up quite nicely. You can now almost see the outline of what everyone sees when they walk into their local Arvest Bank. Keep checking back for more updates from Springfield first Arvest Bank being built to LEED certification standards.

Check out the newest photos below!

Little Rock Soirée has recently tallied the votes from their 2010 Platinum Service Awards, and Arvest was voted #1 in two categories: Best Bank and Best Investment Company!  It is a great honor to receive this recognition.  We would like to thank our customers for voting for us and recognizing the great customer service we provide every day!  You can check out all the results from the survey in the January issue of Soireé. 

Arvest Bank was also Ranked Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Retail Banking in the Southeast Region by J.D. Power and Associates for 2009.

Thank you to all of our customers for their support and most importantly for choosing us as their bank!