Martha Baldwin is our Member Spotlight for February 2010.  Martha is also our Guild Secretary.  She was born in Muskegon, Michigan and migrated with her first husband in the early 70’s to the San Francisco Bay area where he was stationed with the U. S. Navy.  In the late 70s, they came to Athens where he continued his military career at the Navy Supply Corps School.

Martha studied for a Nursing degree in Kalamazoo, Michigan but left school to get married and worked for Michigan Bell Telephone as a Sales Representative.  After moving to California, she began working for the Department of Defense in Human Resources.  The move to Athens found Martha working as a Leasing and Contracting Officer with Rural Development, a USDA agency.  Athens is the state headquarters for this agency in Georgia with 15 field offices throughout Georgia.  The agency provides low interest and guaranteed loans for the underserved people in rural Georgia.  The agency also provides, among many other services, grants and loans for water/sewer systems, ambulances, and police cars in communities where funding is inadequate.   Most recently, she has been a Finance Officer for Rural Development.  Martha also volunteers for the Medical Reserve Corps attending ongoing meetings and training in FEMA preparedness for pandemic and other disaster situations.

Martha is thrilled that her parents have moved to Athens from Michigan but she has two brothers (and their families) who remain devout Michiganders.  Music was very much a part of their family  life – mother (piano and flute), father (trumpet), brothers (bassoon and French horn). 

Martha’s interests include playing the piano, gardening, and cooking.  She was taught piano by her grandmother at the age of eight and inherited the piano she learned on.  To earn extra money for college, Martha taught piano for several of the professors’ children and performed as an accompanist for other music students.

She has no big desire to travel on extended trips since she does not enjoy “living out of a suitcase”.  She is, however, currently intent on discovering Georgia and all it has to offer, with her main enthusiasm being Georgia’s islands and coastline. 

Martha became involved with the Guild when she was invited to a membership tea by Amanda Thompson and has now been with the organization for approximately thirteen years.  She remembers when the Symphony's concerts were held at the Clarke Central Auditorium.  At the time, she was a member of the Classic City Sweet Adelines.

I asked Martha to tell me something about herself that she would like to share with others.  She said she is an avid recycler and believes that everyone needs to be mindful that the earth cannot continue to support the waste that man generates without

supporting recycling.

I also asked her for one piece of advice to share with others.  Martha said “With all the personal and professional challenges people face in our world today, it is important for each of us to do something each day (either in a big or small way) to make someone else’s life easier.”