First Bank Corp. donates $500,000 to U.S. Marshals Museum

Fort Smith-based First Bank Corp. announced Tuesday a gift of $500,000 to the U.S. Marshals Museum, which pushes the museum over the $5 million mark in its $50 million fundraising goal.

In January 2007, the U.S. Marshals Service selected Fort Smith as the site for the national museum. The U.S. Marshals Museum board of directors and staff are underway with the $50 million national fundraising effort. The roughly 50,000-square-foot museum will be built in downtown Fort Smith next to the Arkansas River.

First Bank Corp. is the holding company for First National Bank of Fort Smith, Citizens Bank and Trust of Van Buren, National Bank of Sallisaw, First National Bank of Rogers and Brown-Hiller-Clark & Associates. Each affiliated company donated to the overall gift. Sam M. Sicard, president and CEO of First Bank Corp., serves on the board of the U.S. Marshals Museum.

“I believe it (Marshals Museum) will transform downtown Fort Smith,” Sam T. Sicard, vice president of First National Bank, said in making the announcement late Tuesday evening following a bank board meeting.

In an interview later, Sicard said the board was unanimous in “giving a leading local gift” to demonstrate local community support to potential nationwide donors. Sicard also said the board is confident the donation “will inspire other local gifts.”

“The reality is that this is truly a unique project for this area that comes around maybe just once in a lifetime. … The decision was not easy in terms of the amount, but it (decision to give) was unanimous. We did what we felt we could do to help get that (national fundraising) going,” Sam T. Sicard explained.

Jim Dunn, project director for the museum, said the bank’s gift includes naming rights to an interactive exhibit in the gallery titled “Why Marshals?” Dunn announced that the bank’s gift also pushed the museum over the $5 million mark. Dunn and Sandi Sanders, former project director for the museum, said the bank’s donation is the largest private gift to date in the fundraising effort.

It’s the second largest gift made by the bank, however. The bank donated $1 million to support a scholarship fund at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith.

Dunn said the museum has several possible donors in the pipeline and the bank’s donation could result in favorable decisions. Sanders said the local support of the museum will allow museum staff to more actively solicit funds from non-local sources. Sanders recently stepped down from the day-to-day job of museum project director  to accept the role of vice chair of the U.S. Marshals Museum Foundation Board so she can better assist the museum staff with local and national fundraising. The Museum board recently hired Barbara Harvel as director of development to lead the fundraising effort.

Part of that fundraising effort includes former President Bill Clinton. Clinton has agreed to serve as the ceremonial host of a private reception for the U.S. Marshals Museum at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion in Little Rock. The invitation-only event will be held Dec. 18, and will seek to attract individuals who may directly or indirectly donate more than $1 million.

As to the $500,000 check, Sam M. Sicard kept his banker hat on in making a side note to Dunn.

“We would appreciate if if you’d deposit that in our bank,” Sicard said, with a roar of crowd laughter following.

Sam M. Sicard, First Bank Corp. president and CEO; Sam T. Sicard, vice president; and Jim Dunn, U.S. Marshals Museum project director, pose with the “check.”