NEW MEMBERS
HUU added eight new members on the weekend of June 5th. Please greet them warmly as you meet them. We’re the richer for their company on the journey.
Rory DePaolis and Annie Hogan
Rory DePaolis is a professor at James Madison and has been a Harrisonburg resident for 13 years, the past ten practicing raja yoga. Rory is the father of 2 talented young men, Joshua and Caleb. He spends much of his time playing with infants in his language acquisition lab, reading, or enjoying family and friends.
Annie Hogan is a doctoral student at James Madison and also works part-time as an Audiologist in Fishersville. While she was raised in the Midwest, Annie moved to the area from North Carolina in 2008. If she had any spare time, it would be spent in the garden, eating or cooking/baking, biking around town, or working on her most recent crafty project. Instead, she is in the beginnings of a dissertation and is often found approaching unsuspecting people in a shameless attempt to recruit research subjects.  In Rory’s opinion, she is also stark raving mad.
Annie and Rory will marry at HUU later this summer.
Pam Helsley
I was born and lived in Northern Virginia for 18yrs. Attended JMU, graduating with a degree in Biology and Medical Technology. Have worked at Merck in Elkton for 23 years.
Two significant events that lead me to HUU were the death of my father in June 2009 and my extensive work at Merck as an ambassador for change in the area of inclusion and diversity.  I want to expand my “family†and develop spiritually with the HUU church community, surrounded by a congregation that is welcoming to LGBT individuals.
I enjoy people, especially small group discussions, and nurture my introverted self through vegetable/ flower gardening, reading, spending time with my dogs/ cats, exercising and taking walks in Paul State Forest.
Marti Lay
I’m a kindergarten teacher, teaching in Smithland’s dual language program (Spanish/English program). My husband and I built our house in Rawley Springs (the 2 of us with help of some friends), which has been an all consuming adventure for the last few years. For years I’ve been involved in women’s health care issues, wildlife issues, and AIDs education. When not working, I love gardening, writing and making glass art.
Beth Oscanyan
I consider myself to be a jack-of-all-trades sort of person. I have assisted in several phases of medical research, spent vacations assisting on assorted field-science research projects, milked animals through several lactations, (with my husband) designed and built our own home and raised children, baked bread beginning with wheat kernels, raised and preserved our food, taught mathematics and science, served on a Disability Services Board, and helped organize a Center for Independent Living.
I now work regularly at two different distributed proofreading sites on the web preparing books in several languages for download from Project Gutenberg. Although I have attended church regularly for several decades, this will be my first membership in a congregation; and to most yes-or-no questions I answer “yes and no.”
Paul Revell
I have lived in the Shenandoah Valley since 1997.   I became interested in Unitarian-Universalism some time ago as I wholeheartedly embrace its principles, but for various reasons did not make the connection until this year.
I am married with 4 children. My wife Lindy works as a nurse at UVA and works the weekend shift (which is why you have not met her). I will mention that one of my children (now an adult) suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and is one of both my joys and my concerns. My daughter, recently graduated from Bard College in New York, lives in Philadelphia and we visit as often as we can.
I am originally from the Tidewater area but have lived in North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland during my adult life. While I have lived in Augusta County since 1997, working in Charlottesville has meant that my wife and I do not have the sense of community here in the Valley that we would like. However, I am certainly finding that sense of community with the Harrisonburg UU.
I have a B.S. degree in Forestry and an MBA (however, I have learned that I was never a good fit for this).  I work for the Virginia Department of Forestry (I have since 1985) and serve as the Urban & Community Forestry Coordinator. I do some volunteer work in Charlottesville with Reading for Blind and Dyslexic. I am interested in various environmental and social justice issues and hope that UU can help me channel some of that interest into working on practical local solutions. My upbringing is Catholic, but I am currently exploring a number of spiritual paths.
Art and Shirley Vasy
Art was born in Racine, Wisconsin, the youngest in a large Hungarian family of 5 brothers and 1 sister. After he retired from the Army, he spent many years traveling the world working for Harris Corporation, GTE and Computer Science Corporation as a government contractor.
Shirley Vasy, a Virginia native from Tazewell County, moved to Northern Virginia many years ago to teach school and stayed until moving to Harrisonburg in December of 2010. She is a retired Prince William County teacher who spent most of her teaching years in middle school.
When our wonderful family — Shaun, Kristen, Lena and Van — moved to Harrisonburg, we seized the moment to escape Northern Virginia. We like Harrisonburg, especially the people of HUU who have made it so much easier to adjust. We look forward to being active participants at HUU.