This article originally appeared in the Allegan County News and has been republished with permission. If you are an Allegan Public Schools graduate and would like to be featured in an article, contact our Communications Director.

By LESLIE BALLARD
Allegan County News

High school students have many dreams and set many goals for their futures while in high school. “Seeing the world” is often one them. AHS class of ’91 alum Heather Barta (nee Voss) is no exception.

One of her goals in high school was to visit all 50 states, and she is nearly there with only Delaware and South Carolina left on her list.

Having graduated from MSU with an Education degree and licensed in K-8 Earth Science and English, Alaska was especially appealing to her because of its incredible geology. She credits her 7th grade Earth Science teacher Joe Munn with turning her on to geology. “In a different life, I would have been a seismologist.”

Heather’s love of travel extends beyond the US. “Japan is our favorite country. It’s lovely, so safe, so easy to travel around.” She fondly recalls taking a trip to Hakone, situated high the mountains. They took the switchback railway and the funicular before cable cars up the mountain. They then took a ropeway (gondolas) over the lake before boarding a Viking ship to sail around the lake, which is in a caldera (volcanic crater).

“There was something about the place,” she observes, “it was so very high up, and there are sulfur mines and hot springs. The whole area is really cool!”

Cruising is a favorite activity, and she and husband Henry, an IT developer for a car supplier, have taken several JOCO cruises, as well as a Viking river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest last fall.

She recently returned from visiting her sister in Finland, “a lovely, beautiful place” that has also recently been named once again the world’s happiest country.

Heather does much more than spend her time traveling.

“I always wanted to be a teacher partly because of my mom being one. I loved education but hated the classroom and its rigidity and lack of creativity.” The increased expectations for teachers not just in teaching academics but all the other things made her rethink her career choice.

She had worked at Camp Kidwell ever since she was 13 and “couldn’t figure out how to make the classroom more like camp. There was not enough time to do fun projects or help the students learn how they best learn – through a kinesthetic approach.”

Heather remembers good times with her students. Moving to Idaho in 1996, she spent three years as a Children, Youth and Formation staff member at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and “really enjoyed working with the kids,” especially middle schoolers.

When she returned to Allegan in 1999, she worked as the assistant director of Camp Kidwell before becoming director the following year. She also worked as a substitute teacher and was a long-term sub in a deaf/hard of hearing special education classroom. “I had to have interpreters but soon became fluent in conversational signing.”

During a retreat she attended in Idaho, “God was in my head saying you need to do that [become a priest].” That experience led her to seminary, and she became an ordained Episcopal priest in 2004.
“A lot of women before me broke the ground,” she noted, referring to the 1979 ordination of the Philadelphia 11, the first women to be ordained in the Episcopal Church. Despite that, Heather faced “a lot of challenges at the beginning of my career, including sexism – it was awful.”

However, she received great support while serving as the Interim Episcopal Chaplain at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. “I am where I am because there was a really strong youth minister who helped me.” She also met her future husband Henry in Chicago at that time.

In 2006 they moved to Owosso before moving to Auburn Hills in 2011. During that time she had her own version of “a horrible year” when their house caught on fire in 2008. The fire, which happened shortly before Thanksgiving, burned the garage to the ground and then moved to the house. Fortunately, there was enough left to restore. “We were super lucky because we were home when it happened and could get the horses, dogs and cats out of harm’s way.”

As a result of that experience, she highly recommends that people take photos of their home’s interior, taking shots, for instance, of what is in which cabinets as it is very difficult afterward to recall exactly what items were where. “It’s surprising what you don’t remember about where you stored things.”

Working as a Pampered Chef consultant helped them replace some of the household items that were lost in the fire. It was during this time that Heather also founded her business DeClutter Bug, capitalizing on a skill she first used with friends.

According to Heather, helping people de-clutter their lives combines art and organization, and she looks beyond getting rid of too much physical stuff but also works to helps with their emotional and spiritual needs and whatever else is cluttered in their lives. “It’s about helping them create a system for their lives.”

During this process, it’s important for her “to deliberately try to get unwanted things to people who need them rather than send them to landfills.”

In Auburn Hills, Heather worked in various parishes as an interim priest and a transition specialist where she helped leadership in parishes during clergy transitions.

In 2015, they moved to Holly where they live on what Heather calls “a farmette.” There she serves as an Episcopal priest and Coordinator of Province V of the Episcopal Church. Fourteen Episcopal diocese from Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin comprise Province V.

She particularly finds it rewarding to “help churches in transition, especially churches in conflict. To go in and be able to help to change systems to show congregations to do what God has called them to do.”

Leadership development is another area of her work Heather finds fulfilling, and she has recently become a certified Trained Leadership Coach. She provides leadership and organizational coaches to individuals and parishes.

In her role as a Coordinator, Heather also helps people build networks and connect with others in many ministry areas. She organized a large gathering of provinces in Kalamazoo in 2019 and 2022 and has another planned for 2024.

Of course, Heather and Henry have travel plans for this year. Those include a family trip to Glacier National Park via Amtrak, a cruise to Norway and perhaps another JOCO cruise where she can play current tabletop game favorites such as Tiny Towns and Ecos with fellow passengers.

Of her time at AHS, band was particularly important to Heather as Mr. Secor’s experience with competitions enabled the marching band to “do things they’d never done before.” She played flute and oboe and also participated in Color Guard, which she continued her first year at MSU as well.

“My most memorable teacher was actually probably Mrs. English, who ran the recycling club and nurtured my love of all of creation, encouraging us of finding ways to reduce items being sent to the landfill.”