Unsung UU Award 2013

Sarah Riehl

Many church members contribute to the life of our church and merit our gratitude. A few make extraordinary contributions over the years and deserve to be honored by the church and the congregation both publicly and in its records.

Sarah Riehl has been a member of our church for over twenty years. She is a loved and revered member of our community who has made countless contributions to the life of our church. We honor her for the reasons listed below and many others.

We pay tribute to Sarah for her highly respected six years on the Board of Directors, where she was a voice of reason and where her opinions were repeatedly sought, for her chairmanship of the Constitutional Revision Committee and of the Nominating Committee which assures good leadership in the church, for her participation in rewriting the Personnel Policies Manual and the Board of Directors Handbook, her chairmanship of the Organ Replacement Committee, and her initiation of the Children’s Choir. We honor her for her critical contributions to the New Life School in Uganda Project as well as her help with the installation of the new minister and receptions of the Caring Committee. We thank her for her service as a lay minister at weddings and a Pastoral Care Associate, and for her gifts of soup to so many of us.

We are deeply grateful for the warmth, caring, patience, discretion, understanding, creativity and thoughtfulness with which she has made all her contributions to the church community. Sarah has been and continues to be a model for the living of Unitarian Universalist values. We are proud to have her as a member of our community and express our deepest gratitude for her many years of service to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington-Normal.

Jim Reid, Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington-Normal, December 8, 2013