The Families, Children, and Youth (FamChY) Ministry is happy to introduce our new Coordinator of Children’s Involvement Bella Vavra (she/her). Bella will have the wonderful opportunity to get to know our First Church Littles and provide them with a space to be expressive, play with one another, and learn three Sundays a month! This program will be launching in October and keep a look out for more information soon.
Read more about Bella here:
Bella Vavra (pronouns: she/her) has just moved to the Bay Area after completing graduate school at the University of Oregon. She now lives in Berkeley with her partner Daniel (he/him). Bella enjoys painting, small scale gardening, exploring new coffee shops, and learning to bake fun new treats. She holds a Master of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelor’s in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University.
Bella grew up in rural northern Wisconsin. She was brought up in the Christian non-denominational church, with support from her immediate extended family. College and particularly graduate school was where Bella was able to really make her faith her own, as she realized how important it was to her to find faith communities that acted out God’s love through social justice and community support. Upon moving here, she was delighted to find the intentionality she was looking for in the loving and progressive community of First Church Berkeley.
The oldest of two younger sisters, Bella has always felt a call to uplift, encourage, and support young children through her work and her faith. She has pursued this through her career supporting children with disabilities in accessing communication, and is thrilled to be continuing this call by joining First Church Berkeley as the new Children’s Coordinator! She is excited to get to know and work with such a beautifully diverse and supportive community.