As you can see, not all of those named are youth.
Katie is our adult treasurer and wife of Jayson, a full time job, and mother of Sarah, now a college student but who was named last year, and of Jake, our current first vice president.
It would be enough to be a working mother of this family. But Katie stepped forward to take over the adult treasurer job in February 2015, which is no small feat.
We have a lot of money flowing through crew accounts at any one time. There are fundraisers to watch over, our annual registrations to pay for, special trips with special fees and expenses. And a myriad of situations to handle with families and money. And she must also work with whoever the youth treasurer is to school them in money handling.
And through it all, Katie has done a superb job.
If that’s all she did, she would still receive this honor. But Katie’s importance to this crew is way more than just tracking our funds.
Three years ago, she and her husband proposed a crew trip to the Badlands in the Dakotas. It was a mammoth planning chore with vans, hotels, campsites, plains weather and a lot more to consider. And while Jayson helped and was the leader of that trip, it would not have been possible without Katie’s planning.
There also have been times when we’ve needed a female chaperon and Katie has volunteered, even when it was not her favorite thing to do, like a long hike or backpacking trek. She has been a fixture of Thursday nights, there to talk with the youth treasurer or to be available should a parent or youth have a question about their accounts. She’s also usually busy those nights assembling food packs for a food program at this church for children she has been a key part of.
She’s always thinking about how to improve our program and her stream of ideas have helped us. She’s also one of our most friendly adults with a quick smile and easy laughter. She’s genuinely interested in all of our youth.
And I couldn’t talk about Katie without mentioning her current ailment. She is suffering from a bad lower back malady that immobilized her husband last year. I’m not saying living with Jayson has given her this pain, though it may have caused her other types of pain. I mention that because while she has some nights moved a little slower, she has kept moving and has come to meetings even when her back was in extreme pain.
So it is my honor tonight, Katie, to award you the Cherokee name, Da-La-Ke-Tee-Yah, which means Money Watcher.
Congratulations!