Photo: Andy Pauquette
This week’s featured staff member is Susie Peirce, Communication & Grants Manager. Susie has been with FWCC for 6 years. She was originally hired to fill a nine-month interim position and was invited to stay. We are glad she did!
Susie grew up in Goshen, Indiana, and moved to Fort Wayne to attend Parkview-Methodist School of Nursing. Upon graduation, she worked a year as evening charge nurse in the Parkview surgery and for 11 years with Orthopaedics Northeast as a hospital rounding nurse. Once she and her husband started a family, she chose to stay home with their children until they were in middle and high school. Upon returning to employment, she has worked as a church administrator, elementary school media clerk and TV producer, educational outreach coordinator, literacy initiative assistant, and consultant.
When she is not working, she enjoys traveling to visit with friends and family, spending time with their grandgirls, reading, needlework, bicycling, and walking. This October, she and her husband will take their second long bicycle trip. Last year they biked 150 miles from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD, and this year they will bike the Katy Trail (260 miles) across the state of Missouri.
Here’s a little bit more about Susie:
1- What do you like best about working with FWCC? I appreciate working with an incredibly talented and committed staff. They are extremely knowledgeable and possess an incredible work ethic. Although I really have limited contact with the singers, I do have the opportunity to interact with their families. I really admire the commitment from the parents/guardians to their children and our organization.
2- What is your favorite FWCC memory? I will never forget the Concert Choir’s performance at the ACDA conference in Chicago. Compared to the size of the other performing groups on their program, the Concert ensemble was small. And then they sang…incredible! Their level of intensity and passion was heard in their voices. The audience’s response was confirmation that everyone there had witnessed an extraordinary performance.
3- How would you describe the culture of FWCC? The culture of the FWCC is supportive, encouraging, and caring. This is present in the administrative and artistic staff and their interactions with the children and their families, as well as the singers and their contact with other FWCC members.
4- In your own words, why should a child consider joining FWCC? I believe it is important for children to participate in activities that interest them. But I also realize that there are some extra-curricular choices that can impact a child’s life. Singing in the FWCC is one of those choices. Children have the opportunity to have extraordinary directors, meet children from communities throughout northeast Indiana, perform for thousands of people in unusual venues, and at the same time, receive a music education that is second to none. This combination of intellectual and physical experiences is extraordinary.