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Gentry takes
home Peacemaker Award
Gunnison Congregational UCC leader responsible
for leadership of
Mini Food Court Program among numerous other accomplishments
The winner of the Peacemaker Award at
this year’s Annual Meeting in Colorado Springs was Martha Gentry
of Gunnison.
She was one of three women responsible for the congregation being Open and
Affirming from the outset. Most recently, (March 24-25, 2007) she provided
leadership for a collective of college, church and civic agencies to put on
the “Out and About” conference, an educational awareness, seeking
and promoting understanding and security for the GLTB communities in our valley.
Without her innumerable contacts, superb leadership, planning, and constancy
of purpose these events would not have happened. Five workshops attended by
70 individuals also resulted in two front page articles in the local paper
detailing the challenges of being gay and being “out”. These articles
raised consciousness and prompted thoughtful discussions despite the controversial
topic.
In her four year tenure as chair of the Social Justice Ministry, she has gathered
a team including members from the Episcopal and Unitarian Universalist churches
in an ecumenical spirit which has produced a series of successful programs.
The Restorative Justice Program has made a significant difference to youth
offenders and victims of crimes by offering an alternative path to the usual
criminal justice system. Well received and funded by the larger community,
it has become an independent non-profit which increased its services and the
numbers served. Restorative Justice provides peacemaking for all kinds of disputes
which do not belong in the courts. They recruit, train and employ many volunteers,
equipping them for dispute resolution.
Martha Gentry’s leadership of the Mini Food Court Program (supported
with grants
from the RMC and national programs) ensured its success. Our high school has
no kitchen or no cafeteria. Therefore, those students who qualify for free
lunch were not served nor was there a communal meal time for socializing. Instead,
many students
left the grounds in their cliques. Our peacemaker brought together a consortium
of school officials, private citizens and church members to provide lunches
for students. She received grants to expand services. She lobbied restaurants
to deliver, and volunteers to serve the food. the program now serves lunch
four days a week and
the school community enthusiastically endorses the program for community building,
not only among students but also among the adults who share lunch times. Financial
contributions from Rotary, other churches and public sources have increased
the numbers of meals. As of November, 2006, an average of 82 students per lunch
for 15 lunch periods including 230 meals for students eligible for free lunches
were being served.
Besides her leadership at Gunnison Congregational UCC, Martha was instrumental
in the vision and implementation of day care services (Tenderfoot Day Care)
This service is for families of all incomes and is adjacent to Western State
College. Not technically a lab school the facility serves many faculty and
provides employment and training for students.
Martha’s great talent is for connecting the right people to make a project
go from idea to realization. She is a bridge across divides of age, economic
circumstance, educational background, race and ethnic affiliation.
Before arriving in Gunnison, Martha served two terms on the national board
for the YWCA, providing programs for girls and women, especially the marginalized
or disadvantaged. As director of a St. Louis area Y, in an impoverished African
American community, she was one of only a few white folks welcomed into the
black community to work together of social justice and peace. She was a founder
of a Disciples of Christ Mother to Mother program, connecting mothers from
affluent white communities with impoverished inner city moms. The program provided
resources social and educational opportunities, mutual understanding and friendship
for all and was later successfully duplicated in Lexington, Kentucky in the
mid 1970’s.
Martha earned her PhD in St. Louis and has been a professor who taught courses
such as “Social Action And Advocacy”. She co-authored a text on
the same topic. She has been well known as the advisor and confidant to students
facing various sorts of discrimination. During the late 1970’s and 1980’s
she taught graduate social work courses in the first-ever Off Campus Master’s
program designed at the University of Kentucky. Offered primarily at Hazard
KY in the Appalachian region and later in Covington KY, they were specifically
designed for fully employed social works not able to leave work and come to
campus. Most students were disadvantaged but highly motivated to improve their
work in Appalachia. She taught in Hazard during one of the worst floods of
the Kentucky River and had just taught social work practice principles and
strategies in natural and man made disasters when the flood struck. The teaching
was challenging in part because of the weekend travel and classes but also
because she had to be accepted by the students as a person who acknowledged
and accepted the regional culture. She still communicates with some of these
former students.
Since retirement, she initiated the western slope location of The Theological
Education Institute providing alternative training for ministry, “equipping
the saints” for ministry in local churches.
Well beyond the age where many of us honorably retire she has persisted in
her peacemaking ministry. Her faithfulness to the “do justice, love kindness
and walk humbly with God” has been a model for youth and adults alike.
She doesn’t complicate, she does not equivocate, she does not placate,
she never complains--she just gets to it and gets it done ..for the past six
decades.
Gentry was Nominated by the Gunnison Congregational Church and
the UCC Executive Committee of the Steering Committee by Interim Minister,
Rev. Virginia A. Taylor.
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