By Tippi Rasp
FAIRVIEW — Mary Beth McFadden said she believes in giving back to the community which has given her so much.
A lifelong Fairview resident, with the exception of when she attended Oklahoma State University, McFadden’s father instilled in her his love of the small farming community and the Major County seat.
“My dad was always a very strong Fairview supporter,” McFadden said.
That’s just one reason she stays involved in the community through service on the local boards of organizations like Fairview Fellowship Home and the Fairview Chamber of Commerce. She gives on a national scale through an organization that promotes the common interests of savings institutions in the region.
A longtime employee of Fairview Savings and Loan, McFadden joined the Midwest Conference of Community Bankers in 1998. Last summer at the 59th conference in Vail, Colo., she was elected by her peers as president of the organization. After she began attending the conference, she was asked to join the board.
She said the “very family- oriented” conference offers members valuable information they can take home to their communities and use.
“We always learn something and they have great speakers,” she said, adding this year’s conference has been moved to Beaver Creek, Colo. and is slated July 23-26.
McFadden said after she got involved in the Midwest Conference of Community Bankers, she met and became friends with families who take vacations each year to places just like Fairview.
“We have to be thankful for where we live,” she said.
And, she’s trying to make Fairview an even better place to live.
As part of her involvement in the Fairview Chamber of Commerce, McFadden said one of the projects is to develop a campaign to attract Fairview High School graduates back to the area to live, work and raise families.
“We have excellent schools here and the quality of life is great,” she said. “It’s nice to go to a big city, but it’s nice to come home.”
McFadden said she believes in doing “anything a person can do” for their community.
McFadden is vice president of Fairview Savings and Loan and she also in on the board of directors for the institution.
