“Help all” – Partner in Service Judy Moore

Editor’s Note: The Eastwick Rebuild Project took a break for COVID in January and February 2022. It will reopen for volunteers in March! Book your mission trip now!

“Help all, no matter whom.”

That short sentence captures the commitment of Judy Moore, whose life of service has included disaster response and recovery work with the United Church of Christ, much of it as a Partner in Service.

She commends Partner in Service work to everyone, citing the satisfaction of “outreach and helping others – especially those who are in need.”

Members of First Congregational Church UCC in Thetford, Vt., Judy and her husband the Rev. Doug Moore often have served side by side.

In 2006 and again in 2008, the Moores spent a total of five months helping Katrina-battered New Orleans rebuild. They returned to New Orleans in 2010-11 once again to help, Doug as interim minister and Judy with UCC Disaster Recovery.

Subsequently she was volunteer coordinator for the UCC’s Superstorm Sandy recovery (2013, working virtually from home in Vermont).

In April 2018, the Moores went to Puerto Rico to help organize UCC recovery after Hurricane Maria, then, working from Vermont, Judy was volunteer coordinator into 2019.

Along the way, she also served as a UCC Disaster Response Coordinator in Vermont.

Finally, in March 2021, Judy agreed to virtually register volunteers for the Eastwick Rebuild Project in Philadelphia after Tropical Storm Isaias. 166 volunteers worked 1,880 hours valued at $64,164 from August-December 2021. Judy will be retiring from this effort April 1, 2022.

“Volunteering with church groups is easy – everyone wants to help; and disaster work is so necessary,” Judy said. “Most of us never experience a disaster and cannot imagine what it would be like – this work underlines the need all around the world.”

“Judy has served in all kinds of situations, including volunteering completely remotely as a virtual volunteer during COVID,” said the Rev. Elena Larssen, UCC Minister for Volunteer Engagement. “And she remembers people!

“When we first met, she was talking about the groups that she was booking. From her desk in New England, it turned out that one of her Mission Trip teams was my home congregation 3,000 miles away in Northern California.  

“I was so moved to think that she was supporting the ministry of my beloved church family that I choked up on the Zoom meeting,” Larssen said. “That is what volunteer leadership like Judy’s creates: it makes the covenantal ties of the UCC into a community of service.”

Judy’s volunteer service capped her 40-plus year career in education. She taught English, French and Spanish at all levels: kindergarten through adult. She served as an Educational Missionary with the Board of World Mission, teaching ESL in a Japanese College on Shikoku Island (1970-1).

She was a public school principal and Founder and Head of The Sharon Academy in Sharon Vt., an independent middle and high school, until she retired in 2006.