New Member Spotlight

On June 4, 2023, we welcomed new members into our congregation.

Brandon Hallstrand 

I grew up going to church in rural Wisconsin and have attended numerous churches over the years looking for a better fit. Plymouth has been by far the most welcoming and best match to my inner compass, and I’m glad to become a member. I am a mid-career finance professional, who enjoys being active in the outdoors, dance, volleyball, travel, etc. I have an interest in understanding other cultures and faiths and really appreciate Plymouth’s accepting attitude towards different perspectives as well as its advocacy for those in need. Thanks for making Plymouth the great place that it is, and for the privilege of joining such a great congregation! 

 

Cathy Gustafson

Cathy is a freelance writer and consultant with special expertise in nonprofit management, including 15 years of teaching in higher education. She is a long-term resident of Bloomington, sharing her home with Frankie, her mischievous Yorkshire Terrier. 

Cael Foster (fiancée: Eve Burdick)

I am drawn to Plymouth because of its wonderfully open community and progressive values. I’m also hopeful to make long-term friends around my age, something that’s usually difficult in my stage of life.

I’m a metadata analyst for an educational publishing company. My interests include gaming, reading, movies, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Gina DelCorazon

Gina and their family found Plymouth at Rally Sunday last fall, and they’ve loved it ever since. Initially visiting to explore the children’s choir for their son, Toño, Gina has found friends and a community they treasure already. The progressive vision of a more just world that Plymouth hopes to help create is exactly what they have been searching for, at a place that embraces their queer, multiracial family. Gina is a research scientist at a network of free preschools for low-income families and is trying to learn how to garden this far north, with many Plymouth folks generously helping coach and support them on this journey. 

Linda Causey

I moved here from Maryland 18 years ago as a Presbyterian, which I still am until the service ends today. My choirmaster from Maryland said I should choose my new church based on the quality of the bell choir, and the Presbyterian one did not pass muster. So he sent me to the Methodist church just up the street. Since many of my family came to this church, I figured out how I could ring the prelude at the Methodist church and then quickly drive over here in time for the prelude and an additional number. But when time schedules changed, I could only ring in one church, and I chose Plymouth, of which I am now a brand new member. Thank you for letting Little Late Linda—as my Mother called me—join you all. 

Eve Burdick (fiancé: Cael Foster)

My name is Eve, and I am so excited to be joining such a wonderful community! I’m very excited to be involved with Plymouth Choir and to have our wedding here! I can’t wait to see how I can serve this wonderful community. 

Carrie Bassett

Carrie has been involved with this church for more than ten years as part of the Literary Witnesses Committee. For the last five or six years, she has organized and hosted the annual program Plymouth Reads Poetry. She spends a good deal of time writing poetry, too.

Carrie has two grown daughters and four grandchildren, one in town and three in Virginia. She has had an academic career, having worked for Walden University and Capella University.

A transplant from the East Coast, Carrie finds the Twin Cities her spiritual home, enjoying the range of cultural opportunities this community has to offer, liking many aspects of winter, and pulling ropes of creeping charlie from her garden in the growing season.