Neighbor helping neighbor? Bank on it.

Mary Carpenter, banker and head of this year's United Way campaign in North Georgia. Photo by Mike O'Neal

Mary Carpenter has always been a builder, though not the kind using hammer and nails.

Her banking career has been built on forming personal relationships and accountability.

"Banking is all about people, trust and personal relationships," this veteran of more than 30 years in the financial industry said recently. "Service is so important at a bank that it - that personal connection, that attention to the customer - is what I notice everywhere, whether it is in a store, at a fast food drive-through or on the telephone."

Skills this vice president of marketing for Gateway Bank & Trust has honed in the world of finance will be dedicated this year to chairing the 2011 North Georgia Campaign for United Way in Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties.

"I wish I could close the bank for a day and take all the employees on a tour of all the facilities and agencies we support so they could see all the good things that happen because of United Way," she said. "So many little things - and small contributions - make so many big things possible."

Little things seem always to lead to bigger things for this native of Mount Pleasant, Tenn.

Coming from that town of about 4,500 which is located midway between Nashville and Huntsville, Ala., leads some of her neighbors to think Carpenter hails from North Georgia, but that is not the case.

"I'm from Maury County," she said. "It's pronounced the same as Murray County."

Following her graduation from high school, she co-oped at Monsanto in nearby Columbia, Tenn., the self-proclaimed "mule capital of the world," met and married Ed, her husband of 30 year.

"After getting married I sent resumes everywhere and told Ed that I'd take the first offer," she recalled. "The first response was from First Farmers & Merchants Bank."

Carpenter said she kept that promise and has no regrets about her commitment to become a banker.

"I owe my career to Waymon Hickmon, a legend in banking circles," she said of the man who serves on the Federal Reserve Board, is a member of the board of trustees for several universities, hospitals and banks, and, most importantly, hired her.

Carpenter said she thought her banking days were done when, in 1993, GE transferred her husband to North Georgia, but that was not to be.

"Waymon knew Wesley Smith at Northwest Georgia Bank and had sent him a letter of recommendation," Carpenter recalled. "I walked into the bank dressed in shorts and a T-shirt to open an account and Wesley asked when I wanted to start."

Today, a highway separates her former and current Catoosa County banks.

"I was one of the original 17 that started Gateway," she said.

Things have changed over the years since Carpenter played in a band while riding a float in Columbia's annual Mule Day parade.

"Banking has changed; it's hard to lend money today," she said. "Our first customer here at Gateway wanted to open an account by buying a $10,000 CD but forgot to bring his check book. The manager told him that was alright, issued the CD and told him to bring it (payment for the certificate of deposit) the next time he came to town."

That willingness to trust people to do the right thing and help neighbors help neighbors that Carpenter values in banking is what she says makes the United Way so successful.

"Some of the greatest things about United Way are its diversity, its responsiveness to community needs and the accountability for what its agencies do and how they spend their money," she said. "There is a story on every corner about the good things United Way does."

A rise in unemployment has resulted in fewer payroll deduction contributors, but the leader of this year's United Way campaign said she hopes the local community continues its tradition of generosity.

"We've been so focused on storm relief," said Carpenter, an instigator of a drive to help teachers furnish classrooms destroyed in April. "United Way agencies were among the first to offer help after the tornado, but they help in so many other ways, year after year and all year long.

"The tornado opened everyone's eyes to caring about our neighbors. Some people may be compassioned out, but others keep wanting to give, give, give. I just hope that later feeling is reflected in this year's campaign. United Way means we all come together."