Helling named 2012 Community Trustee by Leadership for Five Seasons

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Leadership for Five Seasons, a program developed and managed by the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, has announced Larry Helling as its 2012 Community Trustee Award recipient.

The Community Trustee Award is presented to a Leadership for Five Seasons graduate representing the general public, acting with genuine care and competence to serve and lead the community. The recipient should also be someone committed to hold the community in trust, to both serve and lead it.

Helling is the president and chief executive officer for Cedar Rapids Bank and Trust Company, a company he co-founded in 2001.

Leadership board member David Sorg says Helling's leadership extends well beyond his CRBT responsibilities. “Whether it is at the bank or one of the many organizations he is involved with, he is always working to improve Cedar Rapids.”

Helling serves on the board of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the board of trustees for Junior Achievement and on the board of directors of the Entrepreneurial Development Center. He is the chairman of the Downtown SSMID board and is the past board chairman of the United Way of East Central Iowa. He continues to be an active member of Downtown Rotary and previously served as its president.

“For me,” Helling says, “it's about making Cedar Rapids an attractive place for young professionals. In the end, if we can attract those kinds of people Cedar Rapids is going to be a successful community and a wonderful place to live and work.”

Past recipients of the Leadership for Five Seasons Community Trustee Award include George Kanz ('09), Dan Thies ('07), Lu Barron, ('06), George Brunsheen ('05), Helen Arnold ('04) and Brad Hart ('03).

Leadership for Five Seasons has been operating for nearly 30 years and prepares individuals who have demonstrated a capacity for leadership, who have exhibited interest and commitment to the welfare of the Cedar Rapids community and who have potential for exercising substantial leadership in the future.