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

Mark Sieger

Often when announcing the recipients of the Faith and Service Award, we try to create a bit of mystery in the build-up. It’s hard to do that with this recipient, because he really stands out in a crowd. Among the lesser-known roles he plays around her is as the “tall guy” when the Worship Committee needs help decorating the sanctuary. Yes, it’s Mark Sieger.

Mark has been part of our community at Memorial for more than 15 years. He’s a music teacher by profession, so he may be best known for his musical talents – leading our instrumental group, singing with the choir. What you don’t see is the work behind the instrumental group – selecting music, sometimes arranging it, leading rehearsals.

There are other things you may not see as well. His many years as a volunteer at Luke House. His work as a mentor for confirmation students. His years of service on the worship committee. His helping out with rides for people who need to get to church. His quiet ear for those facing troubles in life. His inquiring mind exploring the many dimensions of faith and service.

That’s why he is such a wonderful person to honor with one of this year’s Faith and Service Awards. Mark, thanks for all that you do.

Betsy Robbins

Our second recipient is someone else who will be hard to disguise for long. You see her leading our bell choir once a month, adding so much to the musical richness that is part of our community at Memorial UCC.

Betsy Robbins joined Memorial in 2000. She is often working in the background, but the work she does contributes so much in so many ways to our life here.

Her work with the bell choir is, of course, phenomenal. During the program year, she is leading rehearsals weekly, helping a group of our folks create an amazing array of delightful musical sounds on a Sunday morning, always conscious of how the music ties in to the rest of the service. As one bell choir member wrote, “She often writes parts of the music to allow our ‘little’ choir to do ‘bigger’ things. She is a patient teacher and leader for us.”

For a number of years, Betsy chaired our Worship Committee and she still serves on it, bringing both a strong sense of worship as well as a willingness to tackle the less glamorous parts of the committee work. Recently, she took over as coordinator of our Chariot Ministry, which helps get people who do not have transportation of their own to church on Sundays.

She has helped us think about our future as well, serving at various times on our Strategic Planning Task Force and our Sunday Morning Advisory Group.

She does all this with a depth of faith and a commitment to service that fits perfectly with the concept of the Faith and Service Award.

2010 - Chris Hammer and Wendy Proctor
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