Below are stories of people who have given of themselves in extraordinary ways or who have been specially touched by their experiences at Chapel Hill. We hope that the examples from their lives will inspire yours.
CHAPEL HILL CHAMPIONS 2008
Chapel Hill Champions are members who are exemplary in their service, leadership, and commitment to Christ.Their lives demonstrate what it means to be faithful to God in word and deed.Each year a handful of men and women are honored as champions by their church for the legacy they have created in our midst. This year's Champions share a combined membership of 96 years of active Chapel Hill membership.
Wilma Conan
The word that is most often used to describe Wilma Conan is “encourager.” She joined Chapel Hill almost 38 years ago, in December of 1970, so she’s had a lot of years to develop that reputation. She is remembered by a long-time staff member for her fabulous contributions to church potlucks (remember those?), particularly her self-frosted applesauce muffins, which the staff member still makes! But she has done much besides baking for potlucks. She’s also served as a cook on the Mexico Mission trip and prepared deacon meals for those who need them. Setting aside her mixing spoon, she has also been an elder, a Bible study leader, a keystone in the Cancer Care program (having survived multiple bouts with the disease herself), a member of various prayer teams, including the Prayer Task Force that prayed us into the recent course of Pew Power she’s been walking herself all these years. She’s assisted with Good Grief and is a loyal member of both Karen’s Krew and the Chancel Choir, with whom she has sung for the better part of a quarter century. She is, as one person said, “a rock,” and on just such rocks as her Chapel Hill has been built.
The Leighs
Jim and Jan Leigh joined Chapel Hill in March of 1989. They are universally described as a warm, welcoming, gracious couple with ready hands and willing hearts. Like the DeLaneys, their service has been varied and extensive. They have invested heavily in youth at all levels, but particularly in middle and high school ministry as Extreme volunteers, Chill volunteers, Mexico Mission trip site leaders, D group leader (her), and as Youth Auction volunteersand confirmation mentors. They also have an enduring interest in missions and have helped create resources for teachers in Zambia, as well as providing leadership during trips to Slidell, Louisiana with Habitat for Humanity. They’ve led a cove group, served on the Open Doors team, the Parking Lot Team, prayer teams, the Emergency Shelter Team, and the Pew Crew. In fact they’ve rarely met a team they didn’t like! Plus they’ve both served as elders in the Presbyterian church and, sight unseen, agreed to host a youth intern in their home for two years. Their influence is always positive, and the difference they’ve made to those inside and outside our church is profound and worthy of our recognition and thanks.
The DeLaneys
Bob and Anne DeLaney have been members of Chapel Hill since February, 1998. In their time here they have used their gifts and talents in an amazing assortment of ways. They have ushered on Sunday mornings and chaperoned on Friday nights at Chill. They’ve brought strangers together over meals through the Dinners for 8 program. They’ve led small groups into healthy fellowship and provided meals for folks for whom good health is a target waiting to be hit. Both have served as elders in the Presbyterian church and as the servants of children at our summer day camps, he as a Crew Leader and she as head of the Kitchen Crew.
They have served the church long and well in these capacities. But they are perhaps best known to us for what they do in Jesus’ name outside of Chapel Hill. She is known for her work among the women of Purdy Prison, organizing chapel services and play days for mothers and their children, running the prison clothes closet and organizing tours of the prison facility to help raise awareness and recruit more volunteers. He is known for his tireless efforts on behalf of Habitat for Humanity. Both of them are admired and respected by many outside of Chapel Hill for their long-term commitment to those in need. They have both raised awareness of Chapel Hill in the community and awareness of the needs of the community among the people of Chapel Hill.
DIOKONIA: The Making of Chapel Hill Champion Awards
The glass awards presented to our 2008 Champions are custom designed and cast by Chapel Hill’s Patrick Scanlon. They start as glowing pots of gold—2250 degree molten glass. They end up as unique works of art, parts of a series, designed specifically for the Champions, titled Diokonia, which is an ancient Greek work that means servant. How they get from the first stage to the last makes an interesting story.
Pat Scanlon has been an artist for his entire career, but has worked with glass for only a few years. He fell under the spell of hot glass casting about 5 years ago on the fortuitous Father’s Day when he was taken by his family to the Tacoma Glass Museum and saw master Swedish glass caster Bertil Vallien at work. Fascinated, Pat determined to learn the art himself. “You can learn how to glass cast in half an hour and then spend the rest of your life getting good at it,” he says of his new passion.
Being an artist had its advantages and helped Pat gain proficiency pretty quickly. Within a couple of years he felt confident enough to accept Pastor Mark’s invitation to create awards for Chapel Hill Champions. He’s been doing it ever since.
Pat and two other glass artists, Carol Milne and Tim O’Niell, rent the glass studio at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, which is one of only two glass casting studios in the Northwest, to create their pieces. He uses a mold made by an industrial patternmaker as the shape for the awards. The particular mold he uses was originally designed as a cleat, which was used to secure nets on the deck of a fishing boat. He takes the mold, which is made of wood, and presses it into a bed of sand mixed with clay. This forms the hollow into which the hot glass is poured.
He then approaches the glass furnace with a ladle at the end of a 6-foot steel pole and dips it full of about 30 pounds of molten glass, which at this point is the color and consistency of bright golden maple syrup. “I’ve singed my beard more than once,” says Pat of the intense heat that radiates from the mouth of the furnace. Drips of cooling glass are cut away from the lip of the ladle and then he walks his glowing cargo over to the molds and carefully pours it in.
Immediately after pouring, an assistant—his daughter—steps forward with the coiled copper cross that is to be embedded in the award. Gripping it in a pair of long needle-nosed pliers, she carefully positions it where Pat wants it. Copper, interestingly, is the only metal that is compatible with molten glass because it is the only one that cools at the same rate of speed. Using any other metal would cause the glass to crack.
The casting, left on its own, would cool much faster on the outside than on the inside, which would also cause cracks. So it is removed from the mold at this point and placed directly into an annealing oven for 3 days, which brings the temperature down to an even 750 degrees, then gradually cools it to room temperature so that there’s no stress on the glass. The artists typically cast their pieces on a Saturday, put them in the annealing oven to cool, and come back to pick them up on the following Wednesday. Then the finish work begins.
Pat grinds the bottom of the piece smooth on a belt sander in his garage. This allows it to stand up. Then he takes liquid metals—bronze, copper, and iron—and brushes them on the rough side that was against the sand—in such a way as to accentuate the natural lines of the individual piece and give depth and dimension to the glass and its embedded cross.
Then he uses colored acids, which he also paints on, to give the metals a patina, a rust or a green tarnish effect that alters over time as the acids react with the metals, giving the piece more character as it ages. He often applies a bit of gold leaf as well. Over all he brushes on a protective coat of lacquer.
There are a lot of elements in each of the pieces. Each one has significance. Along with the award, each recipient receives a document to explain what each component stands for. Logically enough, each element has something to do with the valuable qualities and attributes of being a servant, a Diokonia. The award is a loving—and lovingly made—tribute to those whose exemplary service has advanced the cause of Christ in our church and in our community.
