From left: Rev. Dan Lillie, John Gamble, Katherine Kelly, Arianna Bryan, and Membership Coordinator, Amy Genova. In front, Owen. Photos courtesy of Holly Beck.
Katherine Kelly and John Gamble
Katherine and John moved to WA state five years ago from New Mexico. They have two human children: Ezra (3) and Owen (6), and a lovely mutt, George (9). After muddling through the pandemic, they are grateful to find a church home where they and their kids can learn and grow. Katherine works as a faculty librarian at Lake Washington Institute of Technology, and John works as a physicist at IonQ, a startup company building quantum computers. Besides chasing after their children, in her free time Katherine enjoys the outdoors and eating fun, interesting, food, and John likes complicated board games and making furniture using old tools.
Arianna Bryan
Arianna is a local Western Washington enthusiast with a passion for organization and a myriad of hobbies (not the least of which are cooking, gardening, and interior decorating). She works as an internal business specialist for a project management firm by day and virtually tutors mathematics for students in need by night. Arianna was (FINALLY!) married this past summer after having to postpone the wedding during the pandemic and is happily settling into married life with her husband at their first home in Lynnwood with English Lab pup Clover.
On Sunday, October 30, Woodinville UU Church co-hosted a Trunk or Treat event with the Woodinville Country Day School (who share our space Monday – Friday). We had volunteers from both communities show up to pass out candy, run the cider and cocoa station, loan lawn games, and pass out candy, an many kiddos turned up in costumes. A ghoulishly-good time was had by all! A big THANK YOU goes out to all of the volunteers and donors who made this fun event possible.
Here are a few pictures of the event, but if you were there and have some pictures you’re willing to share, please send them to May Killorin at office@wuuc.org.
In October, we welcomed two new members to the WUUC staff team. Amy Genova is our new Membership Coordinator, and Skylar Hopkins is our new Director of Religious Education. They will both be around on most Sundays, so please take a moment to say hello and welcome them when you see them!
Here is a little about Amy Genova:
Amy Genova grew up at the foot of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado. She has also lived in Arizona, Texas, Indiana, and Missouri. She and her husband, Thomas Perchlik, relocated to Washington state 6 years ago, just in time for their granddaughter, Willow’s, first birthday. Her husband, Thomas, introduced her to Unitarian Universalism when she was 23, and they later were married in the backyard of the Greeley UU fellowship. They have two children, Emily Perchlik, second lead architect of the Northgate Bridge and mother to a small grove of grandchildren: Willow, Olive and Hazel, and Molly Perchlik, a research scientist at the University of Washington. Amy enjoys poetry, reading, cooking, walking, swimming, movies, games, voting rights, a good protest and social justice.
And here is a message from Skylar Hopkins to the WUUC community:
Hi everyone, I’m Skylar. Most of you have probably known me for a large portion of my life as I have been a member at WUUC since 2003. However, if you don’t, here’s a few things about me. I grew up in Woodinville and I currently live in Snohomish with my family, my partner Zach, and my dog Holly – a pomeranian husky mix. One thing you should know about me is that I love music. I play piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, and I sing. It’s likely that you’ve seen me perform a song or two during a service with my family and other members of the church. In the past few years I have found a passion for working with children and returned to school to begin my journey towards a degree in education. Two years ago I combined my love of music and working with children into a job teaching music lessons. I am excited to bring my creativity and experience with kids to this new job. I look forward to getting to know all of your children and helping them on their spiritual journeys.
After a slow and restful summer, we had our Ingathering service back in September. And, although this was when we kicked off our church year officially, I’m really starting to feel the momentum of our community picking up now.
Slowly but surely, more and more people are showing up to the church on Sundays to attend worship services in person. Most who attend stay for coffee hour afterwards, and I’m noticing the conversations there are getting warmer and livelier as the weeks go on. I’m also seeing a steady stream of visitors coming to check out our community and learn more about who we are; and most of these visitors are returning again because they like what they experienced.
Volunteers are coming forward to provide snacks and make coffee, the choir is returning to a version of its pre-pandemic self (and has even added some new members), and we’ve got a whole crew of Zoomkeepers, and camera and sound techs trained and ready to go. And this is just the Sunday morning experience. Circle suppers are back, small group ministries like pondering the big questions and soul matters discussion groups are back to meeting again, and more social offerings are getting added to the calendar each month.
In October, we hired two new people to join our WUUC staff team. And now as I work with Amy Genova, our new Membership Coordinator, and Skylar Hopkins, our new Director of Religious Education, I find myself getting excited about the things we are planning for the coming year. As I write this, we just had our first collaborative event with the Woodinville Country Day School (who shares our space Monday – Friday), a Trunk or Treat prior to Halloween. It was a wonderfully fun event, and it was also an encouraging step toward potentially more collaborative community events in the future. Just having the Day School in our church building through the week brings an energy to our space, and I can feel it. We are doing the things a community should be doing: building human connections, strengthening relationships, and showing why the whole is always more than the sum of its individual parts. We are stronger together, and together we can be a positive force for good in the world. And we start by being a positive force for good right here in Woodinville, by being good neighbors.
I’m feeling the energy, and I hope you do too. Let’s keep it going and see what we can do.
Good news, we have new staff, new visitors, and members returning to in-person service. PLEASE remember to wear your Name Badges to help these folks learn your names. Also, returning your badges to the basket in the lobby allows the membership committee to keep track of attendance! Thanks for all you do to help our church keep growing!
