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Mesa Bankers Take 'em Out to the Ballgame
Bank Officers Treat Customers to Cubs Game at HoHoKam Park

Mesa, Arizona: March 16, 2005 - Mesa Bankers said thanks to 30 customers by taking them to a Cactus League baseball game at HoHoKam Park on March 15. The weather was perfect as the home team, the Chicago Cubs, trounced the Kansas City Royals, 6-1.

Organized by Conrad Morin, VP-commercial lending, the Mesa Bank Customer Appreciation Day event went smoothly.

"Everybody had a good time, the home team won, and you couldn't ask for a better day," said Morin. "This was the first time we thanked our customers for their business by taking them to a ballgame, but considering Mesa Bank's strong involvement with and support of the Mesa HoHoKams and the Chicago Cubs' spring training games this could very well become an annual tradition."

The other Mesa Bank officers at the game were: Dan Laux, VP-residential construction lending; Rita Leaf, EVP/CCO; Jim LeCheminant, Falcon Field Office president; Steve Mitchell, SVP-commercial lending; Kent Nielson, senior residential loan consultant; and Sandy Zazula, SVP-bank operations.

Mesa Bank President/CEO Neil Barna and three other bank board members, Chairman Stu Hogue, Phil Kellis and Wayne Pomeroy, also attended the game - but they had to work. The four Mesa business executives are members of the Mesa HoHoKams, the local community organization whose biggest fund-raising project is managing various operations at the HoHoKam Park.

So as the Mesa Bankers and their guests enjoyed the ballgame, Barna and his fellow HoHoKams were busy collecting tickets and seating spectators.

The Mesa HoHoKams raise $60,000 each year for local youth and community organizations. At the ballpark, the HoHoKams manage ticket sales, the press box, parking, program production and sales, security, and food service for the press, baseball teams and HoHoKam membership.

Mesa Bank Chairman Emeritus Bob Evans is also a member of the Mesa HoHoKams. Kellis is a former Big Ho and his father, Lee Roy Kellis, now 90, is a founding HoHoKam member, as was Wayne Pomeroy's brother, the late Gail Pomeroy. Mesa Bank Board member Ruth Nesbitt's uncle, the late Dwight Patterson, was the originator of the Mesa HoHoKams and the father of Cactus League Baseball, and the land on which HoHoKam Park and the Cubs' training facilities sit was once owned by Ruth Nesbitt's family. Fitch Park within the facilities is named after Nesbitt's father, the late Larkin Fitch.

In the business community, Hogue is president of SALK Management, a property management company; Kellis is a partner in the Best Western Dobson Ranch Inn in Mesa; and Pomeroy owns Pomeroy's Men's Store in Mesa.

Mesa Bank, founded in 1998, has been ranked among the top 10 community bank in Arizona for three consecutive years, included twice named the No. 1 community bank with assets under $75 million, by Ranking Arizona, which each year conducts the largest business opinion poll in the state. A full-service commercial bank specializing in providing a complete menu of products and services for businesses, Mesa Bank is headquartered in the Mesa Bank Building, 63 E. Main St. in downtown Mesa. Mesa Bank's Falcon Field Office is located at 1733 N. Greenfield Road.