MT. VERNON — Community First Bank of the Heartland has been nominated for a statewide award for excellence and innovation. The announcement came Monday that Community First has been nominated for the Community Bankers Association of Illinois, or CBAI’s award for their “Community Love” campaign held last fall.

Brandon Bullard is the Director of Business Development at Community First Bank. He says the fruits of the campaign came on one day last fall, when members of the bank presented checks to ten local chairities.

The “Community Love” campaign raised $30-thousand for those charities. Bullard says the campaign has spurred into the bank’s “Local Matters” campaign, where they work with and promote locally-owned businesses. Community First Bank will find out if they are the winner of the award towards the end of September.