MEMORIES OF SERVICE by Susan Ofner
Submitted July 3, 2022
I want to share memories of my Bahá’í service while in West Branch and Iowa City in 1985-1990. I’m hoping this inspires others to share their remembrances.
My husband Terry Ofner and I married in August 1985 in Iowa City. Terry lived at Scattergood Friends School in West Branch and we lived there the first couple of years of our marriage. The summer after we married we were the Scattergood summer on-site staff for groups using the facilities. The Bahá’ís of Iowa held their summerschool there and so we were pretty busy those days. Terry served as the food coordinator for the summerschool. I specifically recall that he cooked stir fry for about 70 people. He didn’t have any formal training in this. He had learned how to run the kitchen and cook for large groups while serving as the Scattergood food coordinator the prior schoolyear.
After our 2 years at Scattergood we moved to Iowa City to pursue our educations. We were both members of the Local Spiritual Assembly for a couple of years. The Promise of World Peace was written by the Universal House of Justice in 1985. While on the LSA, it was decided that we should present this to the University of Iowa President. Jon Michael Cavitt and I presented this to him (I need to look up the President’s name). He knew Dwight Allen from their time at University of Massachusetts. Another LSA activity I remember was arranging for and manning a baby changing station at the 1988 World Agricultural Exposition held in Iowa City (or nearby). We worked hard to get water, chairs, diapers needed for babies of families visiting the expo. We left Iowa City in 1990 once we finished our degrees. By that time we had 2 children and student loans that we needed to pay off.
Our experience with the Bahá’ís in Iowa City was wonderful. We weren’t a large number of people, but we were active and diverse in background, in race, in nationality, in age. I loved Iowa City. It’s my favorite place. I’ll have to share more remembrances later.
