Every year, Memorial United Church of Christ honors one or more members with the Faith and Service Award in recognition of exceptional use of time, talent and treasure in the work and witness of our congregation.  The award is usually presented on the Sunday in March when we also receive the One Great Hour of Sharing offering, which goes to help deal with emergencies and on-going development all over the world. This recognizes the commitment of Memorial and its members to reach out in ever-widening circles.

            Other awards:       Lifetime Service        Youth Service

Chris Hammer

When Chris Hammer and her family joined Memorial UCC in late 2003, they may just have been looking for a church home near their family home. But it did not take Chris long to plunge into life here at Memorial.  

Over the years, she has been an usher, she’s been a liturgist and a fellowship host, a Sunday school teacher. She has been part of various book groups, deepening her own understanding of faith while enriching the lives of those who hear her perspectives. And true to form, the more Chris got involved, the more she found other ways to serve.

She has been part of the Outreach Committee and has worked with the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Then she served on the Membership Committee, becoming its chair and helping Memorial reach out to new members while tending to the needs of those of us who are on-going members.

It was Chris who first suggested that we serve coffee on Saturday mornings at the football games at McKee Park – a delightful effort that connected us to the community and raised money to help with school lunches at Leopold Elementary School. She guided our participation in Fitchburg Days the past three years – a huge task. When a member of our community dies, it is Chris who has helped organize the funeral lunch. She has helped gather new members for social gatherings with church leaders.

And then last fall, it was Chris who was the driving force behind the photo directories that will be in our hands in the next few weeks. None of these are glory jobs. They are all hard work that require an attention to detail and an ability to inspire others to work. It’s a reflection of Chris’ faith and service that she has done this so well.

While she was doing all this, she was helping Paul raise their two sons, Nicholas and Lucas, she started working at a nursing home and has gone back to school to get a nursing degree.  She says she has to step back from quite so much involvement in church work while she gets that degree, but somehow, we think we’ll still be seeing a lot of her around here.

Wendy Proctor

If you want to get a clue about who this Faith and Service Award recipient might be, think about a few of these terms: Energetic. Generous. Leader. Outspoken.

Look around a bit. There are many people here with those attributes. You have seen this particular person greet you some Sundays when she serves as an usher. You have experienced her hospitality at Fellowship Hour. You have experienced her presence on a day when she serves as a liturgist.

Wendy Proctor has been part of the Memorial family since 2001 and has had a huge impact on the life of this congregation. She co-chaired the capital fund drive in 2006 that enabled us to build our youth wing. She was elected to the church Council in 2007, has completed two terms there and was just re-elected in January. She chaired our search last year for a new associate pastor.  And when Chris Hammer needed to step aside as chair of the Membership Committee, Wendy jumped right in to help us build on the efforts Chris and her crew have created. 

Along the way, she has gone on a work camp to Back Bay, helped out at Fitchburg Days, especially providing the goldfish snack bags that were our signature item there. She and Lester have hosted the last few new member meetings at their house. 

One of her nominees wrote of Wendy: “Her enthusiasm and energy are catching and very important in the leadership roles she has played.”  We appreciate that enthusiasm and energy and are happy to give her one of our 2010 Faith and Leadership Awards.

The past recipients of the Faith and Service Award are:

2009 - Nancy Baumgardner and Keith Von Der Heide
2008 - Jon and Jacy Boldebuck; Janine Bessemer
2007 - Jann Veloff and Susan Webb
2006 - Loma Klossner and Dean Baumgardner
2005 - Gary Johnson and John Van Overbeke
2004 - Mary and Tony Young
2003 - Jim and Mary Ellen Tetzlaff; Phoebe Maloney
2002 - John and Nancy Hilliard
2001 - Chuck and Ruth Schoenwetter
2000 - Sam and Shirley Robbins
1999 - Art and Leone Babler
1998 - Sonjia Short
1997 - Carol Williams
1996 - Ted and Marie Peterson
1992 - Henry Ahrnsbrak and Sandy Henshue
1990 - Ruth Tiedemann
1989 - Lena Gerber
1988 - Jeff Falkner