Annual Report 2023-2024-DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 19
Matins Choir and Youth Programming
2023-2024 was a year of transition and false-starts. The Board
of Children, Teens, and Families as well as the Youth Executive
Committee (YEC) are owed tremendous thanks for stepping up
to fill the gap during this time.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have
worked extremely hard this semester:
• YEC members, who led the entire semester with dedication,
including fundraisers, the bake sale, the pasta sale, monthly
dinner, Variety Show, and Garage Sale.
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Ryan Carlson
Jonathan Ramsey
Jennifer Kleene
Jenni Kothavale
Janet Petersen
Janelle Turner
Alex Moon
Yvonne Minton
• Erin Netteland-Sandvig, who took care of all the administrative
work from the Matins Credit system, budget, and even to buy
snacks for hungry youth!
• Howard Tempero, who directed stage decoration of the Matins’
Variety Show.
• Garage sale leaders, committees, and volunteers.
− Especially the Olson-Daniel family, who put in over 100
hours to make the Garage Sale an enormous success.
Nathan Daniel-Olson was right there any time when
somebody needed any help.
− Also, Mary and Blair Smith spent their entire week at
the Garage Sale.
− Special thanks to parents who made multiple daily trips
to the bank.
− Those who worked hard to ensure the final cleanup was
complete, moving dozens of tables back to their regular
homes and storage.
Special thanks to all other parents and Matins who
worked without limits, but with so much passion.
• Special thanks to Bobbie Monner, who stepped up to serve
as Matins Tour Coordinator.
• Special thanks to Youth Leadership Team (YLT) group for
their perseverance through a challenging year.
• Thanks also to all who have supported this program with
time, talents, or finances, and to any whom I have neglected
to mention here.
Summary Thoughts
My goal as an administrator, along with Diane Hayes our
Administrative Assistant, is to ensure that our staff have
everything they need to come in and use their precious time
to specialize and do what they are uniquely qualified to do –
play the organ (of course, Sohee does much more!), teach our
children to sing or ring, or lead worship. Whatever it is, I don’t
want them to worry about cumbersome administrative minutiae,
so we work to take care of it, organize the program, and facilitate
our staff to do their best work with our kids.
Sohee and I work to shape the artistic expression of the program
from conceiving and planning concerts or worship services to
writing hymn descants and hosting guests for concerts. We have
also spent countless hours discussing our Casavant pipe organ and
a vision for its future (it is past due for a 50-year maintenance
cycle). This involves getting involved in the intricacies of pipe
organ building… and acoustics… and structural engineering…
and… (this conversation is to be continued).
Ted and I work to ensure that the Matins have every resource
needed to thrive and that Ted knows what he needs before he
needs it, as we navigated his first year with us.
Beth Ann and I discuss the gallery, theater productions, and
possibilities for visual and creative arts… and handbells. Did
you know Beth Ann writes a quarterly column for The Official
Journal of Handbell Musicians of America.
Our department (Diane) also orders communion bread, ashes,
candle oil, wicks, flowers, and palm fronds. So, you never know
what we might be involved with.
I give thanks for the exceptional Music & Arts team we have at
Plymouth Church, and I take very seriously my charge to support
them and lead a program at Plymouth that is becoming all too
rare in American Christianity. Because we are used to it, it can
all too easily be taken for granted, so let us cherish it and let us
support it in real and tangible ways, because it is, does, and can
mean so much to so many people.
With thanks,
Chris
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