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Theresa Nguyen deserves the Madeleine Medal of Appreciation for Faithful Service for her many years of volunteering and work at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, said the pastor, Father Dominic Thuy Dang Ha. IC photo/Christine Young

KEARNS —Theresa Nguyen received the Madeleine Medal of Appreciation for Faithful Service from her pastor, Father Dominic Thuy Dang Ha of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, during the dedication Mass of the newly renovated church in December.

The Madeleine Medal of Appreciation for Faithful Service is a new award in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. It was created by Vicar General Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw in response to a need expressed by several pastors for such an award, he said.

The award honors a person or married couple annually from a parish or diocesan institution who has exemplified faithful service to the parish or community over many years.

Nguyen has given exceptional and outstanding service to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish since 1994, said Fr. Thuy.

"She is appreciated not only by me, but the whole parish," he said. "She knows a lot about all of the ministries in the church and helps with all of them, besides doing her bookkeeping and secretarial jobs. She helps plan religious education and many projects and also helped with the architectural design and purchasing for the renovation of the church. She works very well with the parish council and she knows the people in the parish. She has a gift from God and she gives it to the parish."

Nguyen said she was surprised to be honored with the award. "The award is not just for me, so I leave the medal here to share with the community," she said. "Father is such a great shepherd and we just follow him."

"We really surprised her," said Fr. Thuy, adding that Nguyen had to be called from the kitchen, where she was preparing food for the reception, to receive the award from the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, after the Dec. 16 dedication Mass.

"I danced and was the choreographer for the liturgical dancers during the Mass and when I went to the podium I had been making a salad and had five burners going on the stove," Nguyen said. "My mind was on the kitchen and I wasn’t concentrating on what was said."

Nguyen is the parish’s full-time accountant, and also coordinates the youth group, special events, fundraising projects, the Diocesan Development Drive, and volunteers wherever she is needed.

"I treat this church like it’s my own family and I have so much love for it," she said. "If you have love for God, then it should be all the time, not just when you are available or healthy or you want to; you have to place God first. This work has taught me so much and has strengthened my faith, and my love for God."

Nguyen grew up attending daily Mass until she was 11. The family left Vietnam in 1975 for a refugee camp, where she stayed with her mother and siblings for five months. Her father was already in the United States and found a sponsor for the other family members. They moved to Camp Pendleton in California and then to Springfield, Mo., for three years.

"My mother died six months after we came to the United States," Nguyen said, adding that the family moved three years later to Denver to be near other relatives.

"I moved to Utah in 1989 with my husband, who got a job at Hill Air Force Base," Nguyen said. "We started attending the Vietnamese Mass at Saint Patrick’s Parish and that is how I met Fr. Thuy."

In 1993 Nguyen began helping Fr. Thuy with fundraising to start the Vietnamese parish. The building where the church is now located was purchased in 1994. That same year, Fr. Thuy celebrated his 10th year of ordination and asked Nguyen to "do the tiny task of coordinating the entertainment program for the dinner fundraiser for the church," she said, adding that she also emceed the event. "I had never done anything like that before, but it went well. At that time, the Vietnamese Mass was celebrated at Sacred Heart Parish. God was working through me and from that little task, I just kept going. As I look back, I say what a blessing it has been because we help bring the people and the youth closer to God and to the church by attending Mass."