Community Bank takes towns back in time with centennial celebration
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Community Bank celebrated 100 years in business on Friday by reintroducing an old community barbecue tradition to Ronan and Polson.
“It makes you feel good,” Community Bank Board Member Debby Olsson McClenahan explained. “We kind of revived the community barbecue.”
She added that the community tradition has fallen off in recent years, but she hopes it will catch on again.
Community members mingled at the two events, congratulating the Olsson family on 10 decades of success and feasting on the local fares catered by Isabel’s in Polson and Cheri Houle in Ronan.
“It is up to all of us to celebrate local businesses and organizations like Community Bank, whether they have been around for one day, or for one century,” Montana Secretary of State Linda McColluch said.
McColluch attended the event and was featured as a guest speaker at the celebration.
McClenahan, clad in an old fashioned blouse, skirt and hat, spoke after McColluch.
She unveiled “Community Bank — the First 100 years,” which recaps the 100-year history of the bank, its people and a brief history of the Flathead Indian Reservation.
“I feel sorry for all those women in 1910,” McClenahan joked, noting the stiff clothes and the stifling heat.
Other bank employees, mostly women, donned costumes from the 1910 era and happily square danced on the asphalt outside the bank.
The costumes were organized by bank employees Sylvia Callantine, Geri Herreid, Nellie Heckman, Vicki Parot and Marilyn Dent.
Joy Eckley, a former resident of Ronan, also assisted in the endeavor.
The square dance was called by Gary Weller, and the musical group No Strings Attached performed live music.
Besides a feast and live music, the event hosted a car show and community members lingered ogling at restored cars from each decade.
A line of history aficionados wrapped around the old-fashioned photo booth called Six Shooters Photography.
Clients dressed in old-fashioned clothes and posed against historic backgrounds, producing faux wild-west photos colored in sepia tones.
The Community Bank Board of Directors decided to hold the celebration in conjunction with Ronan Pioneer Days to fortify the weekend with old-fashioned fun and food for the whole community to enjoy.
“We’re thankful for the day and the relationships we have with the community,” Community Bank President Don Olsson Jr. said.
