We’ve all heard them. There is no shortage of cheesy jokes about bankers. By the very nature of their profession, they are easy prey to comedians. What you don’t hear very often is the truly good things community bankers do. Some success stories have enough “feel good” to supply the Hallmark Channel with a line up for six months. For the sake of explaining the impact of community banking, let’s take a look at the fictional town of East Park. East Park was a thriving downtown village in the 50’s, 60’s and the early 70’s. Huge buildings with charming storefronts lined the streets. At the heart of the downtown district was the local drug store where people sat on swivel chairs and caught up with each other over a grilled cheese sandwich and a root beer float. People liked that you could get your prescription, buy a birthday card and have lunch, all right there in downtown East Park. The demise of East Park’s downtown was something that took place over an extended period of time, but