Bishop’s Cross Award
Lynne Schmidtke
St. Andrew’s, Aberdeen

Lynne Schmidtke has been an active member of St. Andrew’s parish for many years while working as a midwife and nurse practitioner. She provided leadership for parish fundraisers and events and served on the vestry. This spring, newly retired, she took on a challenge that had baffled the parish for two years. An elderly member and sublimely talented trumpeter, Jim, had been forced to move from his home, which the City of Hoquiam condemned. After eviction, he lived for a time at a shelter, then in motels with the assistance of community services, and eventually was on the street but still attending church. Lynne found him sleeping on the church porch and stepped in as a Good Samaritan. She took him home, cleaned him up, gathered clothing, and fed him the appropriate diabetic regimen. She hauled him to agency after agency to get him signed up for Medicaid and other services. She and her husband, who dismantled two trailers to gain access to Jim’s driveway, gathered a team of parish members and outfitted them in hazmat gear. In a week-long clear-out campaign, they retrieved sheet music and instruments and filled construction dumpsters with trash. Lynne arranged
the sale of Jim’s house, as is, to a neighbor. Waiting lists for senior housing locally were years long, but the house proceeds made enough of an account that she could secure him a place in an assisted living facility in Oregon. On one of his last Sundays in Aberdeen, Jim played the trumpet when Bishop Prior went to St. Andrew’s for confirmation. Lynne drove her van to move him to Gladstone, Oregon.

Simply put, Lynne Schmidtke exemplifies faith in action, and it is my great honor to award her the Bishop’s Cross.