Volunteer Appreciation

There are so many folks who contribute their time and talents regularly to make our community the special place that it is with all its activities and all its functions. The Board would like to recognize a few of our amazing volunteers this year.

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New Volunteers

Those who have seen a need and stepped in to help out - if you recently took on a role with one of our teams, volunteered to work on a project, or helped out when you saw a need, thank you for stepping in and giving your time to our community. 

We’d especially like to give a shout-out to new members and friends who have stepped into volunteer roles - Sheila Battaglia, Rachel Barry, Barbara Long, Gary Gu, Matt Barry, and Dori Wolfe. Thank you so much for jumping into our community feet first and doing the work that was needed!

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Long-time Volunteers

So many of you volunteer your time and talent to making this a community of love, good works, and wonder. It’s hard to acknowledge everyone who makes a difference in the life of our Fellowship, but I’d like to lift up some exceptional volunteers this year:

	Shari Loe In addition to being the face of the highly successful Mortgage Prevention campaign this year, Shari has been teaching 3rd-5th graders in RE, ran several great events, acts as legal consultant, and has done so much for our Fellowship over the years it is hard to list, including holding the office of President of the Board of Trustees as we ramped up the Gateways project.
	Franklin Heller Franklin also held the office of President of the Board at one time, and has always been one to volunteer to help out in any way he can, including working with Shari last fall on the Mortgage Prevention campaign and serving on COM.  Over the last few months, he has helped resurrect the Social Justice Council, and is leading a group of very effective volunteers to reach out into our community and help others, rally people to protest and write letters, and work to make “good trouble”.
	Helene Ferm Also a mover and shaker when it comes to volunteering for our community. Helene was instrumental in the work on planning and building our new building and monitoring, along with Sandra Persichetti, contractors and plans for the Gateways project, and is still our monitor as we grow into the building.  She was part of the Mortgage Prevention team as well and her work on all of this is appreciated.   She is rolling onto the Finance Committee this term and we welcome her to this new role.
	Noelle Jensen So many hats! - greeter, newcomer meeting facilitator, welcoming table regular, scheduling maven, social justice warrior, UUFaithActionNJ activist, Nominating Committee member, Meditation group leader, and one who always shows up to table for fairs and festivals. Noelle is a rock, reliably anchoring some of our most important work.
	Carrie Davis ... who also shows up for all the fairs, sets up and breaks down the tabling setups, and helps coordinate tabling volunteers for getting our name and work out into the larger community.  She has served faithfully for years on the Faith Formation Team, both as leader and as teacher, and she uses her training and experience in dealing with unusual children in dealing with us and ours. Always willing to help when asked, she also willingly loans us her spouse, Tim.
	Tim Davis Tim is rolling off the Board this year, but you all know he regularly works on anything that he sees needs doing - he is a mentee of John Franklin in policy governance work, he’s been our creative consultant on our physical facilities - from paint colors to art to textures of floors, he chaired the Facilities Committee for years and worked tirelessly in that role, then was asked to serve on the board as the Trustee at Large for Stewardship, and has put on at least three fun and creative Annual Budget Drives (this year’s the Fellowship of the Giving, for instance) and all the work associated with gathering pledges, convincing Board members to call delayed pledging folk, and running the kickoff and closing receptions.  He’s been keeping us grounded on the Board and will continue to work on policy development on the policy governance team.
	Steve Parker One of our Gateways construction heroes, Steve has been chairing the Facilities Committee, where he literally works daily behind the scenes to keep our physical facility running smoothly - chasing leaks, keeping tabs on issues, and keeping our plantings alive.  He knows almost all the secrets of our mansion, including how to sweet talk the electrical panels.  He also acts as one of our legal consultants when needed and sits on our Policy Governance Committee. He is stepping down from the Facilities chair position and plans to finally finish his goal of completing the parts of Appalachian Trail he hasn’t done yet.

These volunteers are the epitome of the movie “Robots” motto “See a need, fill a need.” - they work hard to make our community run.

We thank you all for your hard work and dedication to our Community, and want you to know you are very much appreciated. 

There are so many more of you that work in obvious and not-so-obvious places in our community.  Please don’t feel excluded or overlooked - we invite you all to nominate a volunteer for our upcoming Volunteer of the Month recognitions. Please send your nominations to Board@muuf.org