United Way receives donation from Arvest

The Arvest Bank Foundation has donated $10,000 to United Way of the Ouachitas to help it provide food, shelter and meet some medical needs of people who lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sarah Fowler, United Way executive director, said the organization’s goal is to help individuals with their “most imminent” needs.

“Our goal is to really encourage and allow those individuals who have been most affected by COVID-19 to really let them know there are positive things going on here in the community — we’re a very giving community — and that individuals here in the Ouachitas region truly want to support and make those who have been affected, make it not so stressful and not so bad,” Fowler said.

She said United Way is extremely grateful for ABF’s support, as it serves as a great

way to allow the organization to impact the Ouachitas region.

“Charitable giving is more important now than it has ever been,” Franklin Bass, community bank president for Arvest Bank in Hot Springs, said in a news release. “The community of Hot Springs will persevere through this period, especially with the help of organizations like United Way of the Ouachitas. We are fortunate to be able to lend a helping hand and hope this donation helps.”

Fowler said as the state begins to reopen, it will “hopefully start to help,” but there will still be needs in the months to come.

“We’re trying to set those parameters to ensure we have those resources to be able to do that,” she said.

The United Way of the

Ouachitas has taken swift action to help those in need since the start of the pandemic.

“Most specifically we have been contacting weekly food banks, shelters and day care centers because we know those are three main areas of need,”

Fowler said. “We are currently finalizing our application of assistance that will go up on our website( united wa you ac hit as. org) for many different areas of assistance from food, shelter, utility assistance and some medical needs. We’re hoping to have that up in the next day or so.”

She said that in addition to ABF’s donation, they have received funds from other foundations, donors and companies, and once applications are available on the their website, they will start working to distribute those funds.