Monday’s Warsaw, Ind., Times-Union carried a report of the award given to Terry White, former director of the Brethren Missionary Herald Company and current faculty member at Grace College. He received the Bill Reneker Memorial Community Service Award at Saturday’s Winona Lake Family Festival. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete story.
Terry White, Michael Peoples Honored At Inaugural Winona Family Fest
WINONA LAKE – Both award recipients were surprised Saturday when their names were called during the program portion of the first annual Winona Lake Family Festival.
Dr. Terry White received the 2018 Bill Reneker Memorial Community Service Award; while Michael Peoples received the Limitless Award.
The Family Festival replaces the annual Winona Lake Community Appreciation Banquet, which was held for about the last 20 years. Town Coordinator Craig Allebach said the festival is more family friendly and includes all generations “where we can come together for a time of fun, fellowship, games and, of course, food. More importantly, free food! And a free event for the Winona Lake residents.”
Before Allebach presented the Reneker award to White, he gave a little background on it. Bill Reneker was president of the Winona Lake Town Council when he died in 1993 at the age of 57.
“He was always one of those persons who was always giving back to this community and the business of bettering Winona Lake was a high priority for him,” Allebach said of Reneker.
“… After his death, it seemed only fitting that the annual Bill Reneker Community Service Award be presented by the Reneker family and the town of Winona Lake.”
The award is given to an individual who has a spirit of giving back and works toward bettering the community.
White was born in a small western Pennsylvania town in 1942. His family had a tradition of traveling to their annual church conference for the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, which was held every summer in Winona Lake. “So Terry grew to love the town in his early teens year,” Allebach said.
In 1960, White enrolled as a music major at Grace College, where he met his wife. The two were married in 1965. Both graduated Grace in 1964, and White spend the next year earning his master’s degree at Indiana University.
Click here to read the complete story.