Banking on You Featuring S&T Bank

People-forward banking™ at S&T Bank

“We believe that all banking should be personal,” said Chris McComish, CEO of S&T Bank (STBA), founded in 1902 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. S&T Bank builds on their 122+ year legacy by being “people-forward,” a philosophy that empowers and encourages their team members to make people their purpose, acting based on humility, empathy, and a sincere desire to go the extra mile. S&T encourages their team members to pull from personal experience when interacting with customers, which is crucial to establishing a strong foundation of trust. 

A Personal Connection Helps Fund a Mental Health Center in PA

When Ken Klinedinst of Red Lion, PA, was applying for a loan to acquire Pennsylvania Comprehensive Behavioral Health (PCBH), an organization that offers critical behavioral health services for communities across Pennsylvania, he struggled to find the banking support he needed. PCBH’s mission is to provide quality, research-based therapy to special needs people and their families, while maintaining the highest standards of ethics and client care. Ken needed funding to buy PCBH and continue their operations – and he needed it fast. He reached out to four different banks who took months to respond, and didn’t have the funding options he was looking for. Almost out of options, Ken was in the process of liquidating his personal assets while reaching out to private investors when he found Andrea Splain, senior business banker at S&T Bank.

“I told Andrea my story, told her the critical nature of it. The deal was going to be dead in two weeks. Four days later, Andrea called me and said, ‘I think we can do something for you,’” said Ken. “And that has changed my life, has changed the agency’s life, changed all the employees’ lives here, forever.”

Andrea recognized the key role Pennsylvania Comprehensive Behavioral Health serves in the community for a deeply personal reason, as her son has autism. Andrea and her family rely heavily on the types of support and services that PCBH provides, and she immediately understood the importance of keeping a good provider up and running. Andrea went the extra mile to have the request approved, knowing that the loan would not only protect critical services for thousands of special needs adults and children like her son, but it would also secure 120 jobs for the community. 

Thanks to Andrea’s personal connection, Ken was able to complete the deal and is now the CEO and owner of PCBH. “Being a CEO and a new business owner, I never realized how important it was to have a relationship with a bank,” said Ken. “S&T is my Bank and will always be my Bank. They’ve been there every step of the way.”

Supporting Pennsylvania Families 

As part of their commitment to supporting their local communities, S&T Bank recently surpassed their donation goal for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a Pennsylvania-based organization with the mission to change the lives of children with cancer by raising over $100,000 for the cause. 

“S&T Bank went above and beyond to raise money for kids fighting cancer,” said Liz Scott, ALSF’s co-executive director and mother to ALSF founder, Alex Scott. “We’re grateful to their dedicated employees, customers and those who live in the local community for their commitment to help fund a cure for childhood cancer. We hope to continue our meaningful partnership with them for many years to come.”

For Carmela Bothell, a longtime employee of S&T, supporting Alex’s Lemonade Stand is especially personal; for her, it is a way to honor the memory of her son, Ben, who passed away from leukemia. “He loved everyone he met and was a sweet, kind soul,” Carmela said.

In other community commitments, S&T Bank announced a donation of a half-million dollars to the Indiana Healthcare Foundation, supporting the construction of a new Behavioral Health building in their headquarters community of Indiana, PA. The facility will provide the community of Indiana with a new 44-bed building with capacity to treat eight adolescents, twenty-four adults and twelve geriatric patients at any one time. 

 “This new building will house critical mental healthcare in our community. The facility is being designed to serve a wide variety of generations, so care will be given regardless of the individual’s life stage,” said Dave Antolik, President, S&T Bank. “When we talk about making people our purpose, this type of donation puts those words directly into action. Mental health is just as important as physical health in terms of a person’s overall well-being and this building and the professionals that will provide care within its walls will be a very valuable resource in this area.”

For Chris McComish, S&T Bank’s values come down to five key differentiators: “making people our purpose, doing the right thing, going above and beyond, valuing every voice and winning as one team.” When banking is personal, the entire community benefits.