Madeleine Award for Faithful Service presented to two Saint John the Baptist parishioners

Intermountain Catholic

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Bishop John C. Wester and Monsignor Terence Moore present Herb Witte and Nancy Stein with the Madeleine Award for Faithful Service at Saint John the Baptist Parish on April 21. IC photo/Marie Mischel

DRAPER – Nancy Stein and Herb Witte, parishioners of Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Draper, were presented with the Madeleine Award for Faithful Service.

The award, developed by the Diocese of Salt Lake City in 2012, is given to those who have exemplified faithful service to a parish or the community over many years.

"Our parish actually is full of unsung heroes, so these two recipients today accept this award on behalf of all our tireless parishioner volunteers who have made Saint John the Baptist Parish such a faith-filled community," said Monsignor Terence Moore, pastor, during the awards presentation on April 21.

The awards were presented by the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, who was at the parish for the "Burn the Mortgage" celebration.

When the parish was formed 14 years ago, "we had to develop so many ministries pretty much from scratch. It was instant parish [and] Nancy Stein was the engine behind our efforts," said Msgr. Moore. "An abundance of ministries flourished under Nancy’s inspiration and she carefully supervised every detail in the art and environment of this church. She has always been looking out for underserved parishioners and developing support system for them."

For Stein the recognition means many different things.

"My heart is full of happiness and joy," said Stein. "I was so surprised when they announced my name as the recipient of the award."

The St. John the Baptist community is a very loving one, she said.

"We are a Christ-loving community and our ministries are doing so many good things and having started since the beginning there was a feeling of overwhelming thankfulness to God for allowing this all to happen," said Stein.

Among the many parish ministries are the Parish Nursing Program, Cancer Support Group, Coupons for Our Military, Going Green Ministry, and the Parish Refugee Resettlement Ministry.

Stein said that during her years of service she has learned a great amount of things but some will remain dear in her heart, especially "how I had the chance to bond with such beautiful people and to watch this grow into a loving community full of love and qualities that we all hope each parish would have," said Stein.

The community has been part of her family since the beginning, but even more when she lost her husband, she said.

"They are part of my life, of making me feel that we can [always] go on and we can grow together. When my husband passed away in 2005 it was my parish community that surrounded me with their love and their fortune and their graciousness. They helped me to heal and to continue and to go on. They became a family to me," said Stein, who is preparing to move to the East Coast.

Herb Witte was christened by Bishop George Niederauer as Msgr. Moore’s personal chef. He cooked or supervised the preparation of more than a million meals for parish events and fundraisers over the past 14 years.

"I was very pleased and very surprised to have received this award," Witte said.

Before the Skaggs Center was built, he trained people to cook at the Tremonton Mission, he said. "I taught some of the Knights of Columbus and I built a mobile trailer for the caterers to use for a fundraiser, taking it all over the place."

Food for the capital campaign receptions, festival and Mardi Gras events "have all been provided under Herb’s quiet and superb care," Msgr. Moore said. "And they have been elegant! Among our most successful fundraisers has been Dinner with the Pastor. Now, everyone knows if I were doing the cooking it would have been the traditional seven-course Irish meal – a six pack and a potato – but when bidders learned Herb was the chef, those dinners brought in thousands of dollars."