Meet Chris Page
From Bret Voorhees
Chris and his Great Dane, Jeff.
This is the first of a series of stories about our Westminster staff.
Chris Page is the rookie of the Westminster staff. He joined as the Custodian about four months ago from a similar job at Holy Trinity Church. He has been struck by the “genuine kindness” of his fellow staff members and congregation members he has encountered. He described a “relaxed openness” and trust he has seen with a culture of letting everyone do their job.
Keeping Westminster clean is a demanding job. Chris starts his day with a focus on cleaning the classrooms and nursery and moves through there depending on what else is going on in the building. He is amazed by the randomness of the uses of the building and tries to be “everyone’s right hand man.” He tries to break up the monotony of his job by mixing up the order of how he moves around the building. This gives him fresh looks at his work. He called it a chaos theory to lessen the chance he will miss things. While his main work is inside the building, he is willing to take on outside work if something is needed.
Chris was born in Alaska and started his life as an Army dependent. He grew up in Texas and moved to Des Moines when he was about 19. He worked for his father serving legal papers as a private investigator for many years but later found out management was not for him when he bought the business upon his Dad’s retirement. After a hiatus to Boston, he moved back to Des Moines.
He enjoys spending time with friends and has a talent for a hybrid style of artwork, starting with pen and paper then using photo shop and other software to refine his work into a form of digital art. He had a booth where his work was available at the Des Moines Farmers Market. He enjoys a variety of music genres with “Clutch” named as his favorite band and he said “I feel love” by Donna Summer is the greatest song ever made.
With the goal of helping all that come into the building, Chris is a welcome addition to our team. Tell him thanks when you see him and remember, he is cleaning up after you.