Advancing the Kingdom

122 / 150

119
Chapter Four: ‘You S hall H ave the Poor With You Always’ (1978 – 2002)
years has come from the Ralston Purina
Company, which has supported Kingdom
House community services in many ways
through the years. Dennis Sarich of Ralston
Purina serves on the Kingdom House
Board of Directors and attends its meetings
regularly. A member of Webster First United
Methodist Church, he chairs the public
relations committee.
Public School Administrator Armentha
Russell has coordinated the program for
12 of its 13 years. All of the instructors are
trained professionals and the classes offered
include Fun with Science, Food/Clothing/
Nutrition, Electricity/Carpentry, Creative
Writing, Computers and You, Art/Media
and Money Matters for both advanced and
beginning students.
A companion program for 6-11 year-
olds is operated in the afternoons, funded
entirely by Kingdom House. ‘Summer
Explorers’ meet five days a week for eight
weeks this summer, involving an average of
45 youngsters a day. Five staff members are
helping them learn a lot more about their
own neighborhood.
Kingdom House itself is supported by
the churches of the annual conference with
an annual goal of $65,000. Its programs
serve residents of the near southside of all
ages ranging from infant day care to senior
citizen organizations. Its many functions are
under direction of the executive director, the
Rev. Eugene Morse.21
The late 1980s saw the realization of
changes that had been underway since
the 1950s as the Board of Directors
reflected more broadly the diversity
associated with United Methodist
Women, ministers, social workers,
local managers of public housing
units and civic leaders. United Way
philosophy and training held that board
restructuring was essential for future
growth of the agency, and urged the
hiring of a development director as
well as the sponsoring of additional
fundraisers for the organization. As
Gene Morse recalls:
… a couple of the members, Donna
Puyear and Eunagene Pohlig, took a United
Way workshop on board development and
came back with a lot of ideas on how we
could do a better job in choosing members.
We didn’t need to restructure terms, etc. It
was more intangible as to just getting the
right persons chosen that could really help
the board do better. It was never “solely”
United Methodist Women volunteers and
ministers, but there was a heavy reliance
there. All through the 70s and 80s we
had some community and “non” United
Methodist Women and minister types, but
not very many. Mainly those others were
social workers and I remember several that
were the local managers of public housing
units, etc. Again it was pretty much just here
in the neighborhood. We seemed to lack
the “clout” that could come from better
placed business and skilled persons. One of
the persons we added was an attorney if I
remember right. Donna helped bring Larry
Collett on board, and then for the next year
or so he recruited several members for us.
Lawrence A. Collett, CEO of Cass
Bank, was instrumental as chair of the
Development Committee on the new
skill-based Kingdom House Board.
Although the organizational format
of Regular, Lifetime and Ex Officio
members had been in place since the
1960s, a new era had begun. Each of
the 30 Regular members serves a 3-year
term; ten board associates each year
are either rotated off or elect to serve
another 3-year term, but then must step
down. Members are asked to join based
upon what expertise they bring to the
needs of Kingdom House; by 2002, the
board was searching for skills related
C
D
P hotos:
C: Larry Collett, Chairman
of the Developement
Committee
D: Arlie Berry, Honorary
Lifetime Board Member
Lawrence A.
Collett, CEO of
Cass Bank, was
instrumental as chair
of the Development
Committee on the new
skill-based Kingdom
House Board.