“We’re meeting tomorrow in Forrest City at the request of the Walton Foundation,” said Phil Baldwin, chief executive officer of Southern Bancorp. He said County Judge Gary Hughes is the facilitator of the meeting.

Ten exceptional volunteers were recognized recently by AARP Arkansas, commemorating the national organization’s 50th anniversary.

– Blake Williams, special project manager serving earned income, tax credit and 2008 stimulus package, Southern Good Faith Fund…

St. Francis County Judge Gary Hughes introduced Phil Baldwin, C.E.O. of Southern Bancorp, and set the stage for the meeting by telling those in attendance that Southern Bancorp was, in effect, taking over for the Foundation for the Mid-South.

Southern Bancorp and its nonprofit affiliate Southern Good Faith Fund have partnered with the Internal Revenue Service to provide the service to families with an annual income of $42,000 or less.

A long line of participants in the Martin Luther King Day Marade marched into the Day Armory on Crittenden Street Monday afternoon.

Pat Wright, treasurer of the MLK Committee, emceed the event. She welcomed Taylor Bledsoe, an Arkadelphia High School ninth grader, who was recently selected to go to Washington, D.C. this summer. While at the capital, Bledsoe will have the opportunity to study crime scene investigation and the law system during his six-day trip.

Southern Bancorp and its nonprofit affiliate Southern Good Faith Fund in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service are offering a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to the residents of Phillips County and Surrounding areas.

Work is wrapping up on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week child care center that will benefit working families in Clark County.

The Boys & Girls Club announced today that club member and CHS Senior Orlando Jones has been named one of five national finalists for the Charles Schwab Foundation’s Money Matters scholarship.

…The Club has signed up over 400 members since August and with a daily attendance rate hovering between 40 and 50 percent …

The Knowledge Is Power Program, also known as KIPP, is expanding its educational operation in the Arkansas Delta. Currently, the program has a free open-enrollment public charter middle school and high school in Helena-West Helena.