St. Mark’s WELCA Bold Woman of the Year 2025

For the last few years, the St. Mark’s WELCA Board has nominated someone in our organization to be our Bold Woman of the Year, a person who continually epitomizes the characteristics of boldness in her life; someone who is courageous and has a daring spirit as well as having the distinct ability to take risks. We are sure you will agree with the Board’s choice of Gwen Dornbos as our Bold Woman of 2025.

When interviewed for this article, the first thing Gwen said was, “I don’t think there is anything bold about me.”  But as you will learn, our Gwen has been displaying signs of boldness since she was a small child when she and her siblings were already singing as a group in their church.  When she was 13, Gwen was asked to sing in a quartet outside her family, and began playing the piano for regular church services. The outstanding thing about this is that Gwen taught herself to play the piano, and often doesn’t need music to do so as long as she knows the song or hymn.  As you can see, music was always a part of her family life, and her continued love of music helps define her as an adult.

As a member of St. Mark’s for 19 years, Gwen has not been shy about sharing her personal gifts as a member of the choir, a substitute pianist, a Council member and Chair of the Congregational Care Committee for 2 terms. This led her to the important job of taking communion to the homebound folks in our congregation which is one of the joys in her life.  When St. Mark’s hosted the Southeastern Synod WELCA Convention last year, Gwen agreed to direct the music for the three day event, and her family joined her as the entertainment for the banquet.

Gwen’s work life was no less bold as she was asked to take a leadership position there, and was relied upon for her honest and sincere approach to projects and service to others. So all-in-all, this humble and lovely child of God shares her beautiful gifts and talents as a constant in her life, and what can be more bold than that?