Working for the Lord: Longtime church volunteers answer God's calling

Jarred Opatz, The Daily Record
·6 min read
Marie Septer, 71, has taught Sunday school classes at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Wooster since the early 1990s.
Marie Septer, 71, has taught Sunday school classes at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Wooster since the early 1990s.

Marie Septer plans to cut back.

Violet Wolff is done, but available if ever needed.

And Dave Wright and Bernadette Reiman are still going strong.

Septer, Reiman, Wolff and Wright each have volunteered at their churches for at least 30 years.

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Nearly every church in the area has volunteers to keep them going, but most churches in Wayne, Holmes and Ashland counties have only a few members who have served for three decades or more.

Septer, 71, and Reiman, 80, of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Wooster; Wolff, 94, of Millersburg Baptist Church; and Wright, 66, of Grace Church in Ashland are four longtime volunteers.

With similar stories to others in the area like them, here's why they have donated so much time to their churches:

Marie Septer, St. Mary Catholic Church, Wooster

After seeing in the St. Mary Church bulletin that Sunday school teachers were needed, Septer, who had taught previously for four years at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Orrville, volunteered.

That was a little more than 30 years ago. Pretty much every year since she has taught sixth-grade public school religion classes for those students who don't attend the parish's school during the week. She taught seventh and eighth graders her first few years.

About the same time she started teaching she bought a greenhouse business in Dalton, where she lives. She had worked at the business for eight years before buying it from the previous owners.

"Springtime was always challenging, especially the bigger the greenhouse got," Septer said.

If not for two longtime helpers and another one for a couple years, Septer said, she wouldn't have been able to teach as long as she had.

And up until the past few years, her parents, who lived in a house next to her greenhouse, helped with her business. Her father died five years ago and her mother last year.

Just as she plans to cut back on her time with her greenhouse, Septer is doing the same at St. Mary.

While she has decided she won't return next school year to teach, Septer still plans to serve as a eucharistic minister, which she started doing a few years ago, and a reader, which she began about a year ago.

What kept her teaching for so long was the kids, she said.

"It really has been fun," she said. "The kids are good. You always have the few who are very knowledgeable and then ones you wish you could teach more to.

"It's been a fun ride," she added.

Bernadette Reiman, St. Mary Catholic Church, Wooster

Bernadette Reiman, 80, attends the May Crowning on May 8. She has been teaching religion classes since 1964.
Bernadette Reiman, 80, attends the May Crowning on May 8. She has been teaching religion classes since 1964.

Fellow parishioner Bernadette Reiman has been teaching religion classes even longer — since 1964 in Chicago, Mississippi, New York and Ohio.

She first taught at St. Mary in the 1970s, '80s and '90s and now again since she returned to Wooster in 2014 — more than 30 years just at St. Mary.

Reiman, who was a nun for a few years, has taught all ages and plans to teach religion at St. Mary again for the 2022-23 school year.

"I have a lot of students out there," said Reiman, who, like Septer, said the kids are the reason she has done it for so long.

Dave Wright, Grace Church, Ashland

Dave Wright, talking with teens on a recent Sunday at Grace Church, has been volunteering at the Ashland church for more than 30 years, particularly with teens.
Dave Wright, talking with teens on a recent Sunday at Grace Church, has been volunteering at the Ashland church for more than 30 years, particularly with teens.

Wright started volunteering at Grace Church with his wife, Brenda, in the nursery and toddler areas when his sons were just a few years old. They are now 42 and 40.

He kept volunteering as his sons got older, following them through grade school, junior high and high school, teaching Sunday school; coaching basketball and soccer at the church's school, Ashland Christian; and welcoming sixth graders to seniors for a youth time an hour before Sunday morning service.

Because he has enjoyed greeting the youth on Sundays, Wright said, he continued doing it after his sons graduated high school and his wife stopped volunteering with him about 10 years ago.

"On Sunday mornings, I go in and get to know the students and ask them how their week was and make them feel welcome," Wright said. "Every once in a while I ask them to go out to lunch to connect with them and show someone is interested in them."

Coaching has been another way for Wright to make connections with youth. When he first started coaching, the school paid him. He said he would put that money back into the sports programs. After a break from coaching, he returned a few years ago as a volunteer coach.

With all the years he has been volunteering with Grace Church, Wright said, he is working with youth, whose parents he also helped encourage living a faith-based life.

He pans to keep trying to connect with the church's youth as long as he can.

"It keeps me young," Wright said. "I look at it as the youth are the future of the church, so we have to keep plugging into their lives."

Violet Wolff, Millersburg Baptist Church

Violet Wolff, 94, in her favorite seat at Millersburg Baptist Church, where she has dedicated much of her time for a little more than 50 years.
Violet Wolff, 94, in her favorite seat at Millersburg Baptist Church, where she has dedicated much of her time for a little more than 50 years.

Being in her 90s, Wolff has stopped volunteering unless she really is needed. But up until the past several years, she has served the church anyway she could.

Teaching Sunday school, helping with a Wednesday evening program for grade-schoolers, watching youngsters in the church nursery, playing the organ, directing and singing in the choir — you name it, and Wolff probably did it.

"Everything was volunteer," she said. "When you work for the Lord, you don't worry about the money.

"The only thing I got paid for was cleaning the church," she added. "I started volunteering for that, too, but then the church thought I should get paid for it."

Millersburg Baptist Church actually started in her living room in the early 1970s with Bible studies.

She came to Millersburg in 1969 because her husband got the foreman job at Skyview Ranch Bible Camp, where she helped, mainly as a cook, for many years. He passed away in the early 1990s.

Because they couldn't find a church in the area to fit their convictions, Wolff said, they, and a handful of others with similar beliefs, met for a few years at her home until a church building could be built at 685 S Washington St.

The Rev. Jim Jamison of Millersburg Baptist Church and longtime volunteer Violet Wolff outside the church on South Washington Street in Millersburg.
The Rev. Jim Jamison of Millersburg Baptist Church and longtime volunteer Violet Wolff outside the church on South Washington Street in Millersburg.

What started with Wolff and a few others has now grown to about 80 members. While she can't volunteer like she used to, Wolff remains involved in the church.

"I go to ladies Bible study and morning and evening service," Wolff said. "I want people in the church to know I am still following the Lord even though I'm not doing a lot now."

Wolff said she hopes her many years volunteering and her continued faithfulness are examples for younger people.

"While I'm here I want to do what the Lord wants me to do," she said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Longtime church volunteers in Wayne, Holmes and Ashland counties