Community Care Programs

Sally Fahrenthold: making sure the work continues at MLM.

Heritage Society Ensures Continued Efforts

You might say Sally Fahrenthold doesn’t know when to quit.

Now a retired pastor living in Wichita, Sally spent more than 13 years helping create MLM, its programs to help those in need, and several efforts that spun off to continue as independent programs on their own.

Sally served much of her time with MLM as director of Emergency Assistance and Advocacy, as well as associate director. She helped develop the original community centers that continue today in Clay and Wyandotte counties.

“A lot of things grew out of it,” she recalls. “Many things we started are now separate—Harvesters, Kansas City Community Gardens and the Warmth and Light Coalition, for example.”

Sally went on to serve several positions within the church, eventually moving to Wichita 18 years ago, and finally retiring. Yet she never lost her interest in MLM, its mission and how it goes about it.

“I’ve always maintained an interest in working with congregations and working together to meet the needs of the community,” she explained. “I’m very enthusiastic that this work has continued and I want to see it continue in the future.”

That’s one reason Sally has become involved in the MLM Heritage Society, living stakeholders who have notified MLM that they have made a planned gift to MLM. These gifts ensure funding for MLM programs even after the donor’s life of support has ended. This provides MLM services a critical continuity and ensures their lasting help to the homeless and needy of metro Kansas City.

“That ministry is very significant to me and it’s a wonderful expression of Christian faith,” is how Sally puts it. “It meets valid, very significant human needs effectively. That’s why I have personally invested in seeing that it continue by designating that my contributions will continue.”

Sally is not boastful about this generosity. “It’s not a bragging thing,” she laughed. “I don’t really want to call attention to what I’ve done. But it’s something that I’m interested in and I want other people to be aware of it.”

For more information on the MLM Heritage Society, contact Jim Glynn at (816) 285-3117.