Lori Hildebrandt Penner

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Administrative Assistant

lhp@westgatemennonite.org

Lori joined the Westgate staff in time to see her oldest son graduate from Grade 12 and in 2022 watched her youngest of four graduate and move on from Westgate. She misses being hit up for money, snacks, a signature or treated as a coat tree. Lori’s own education was spent mainly in independent faith based schools, followed by post secondary at University of Winnipeg’s Menno Simons College and CMBC (CMU). She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Social and Economic Development and a Bachelor of Theology respectively.  Early in her marriage she spent time volunteering on an MCC term working at Mediation Services. This was followed by 11 wonderful years at home caring for their growing family. She felt blessed to be able to take that time and enjoyed managing life for a family of six, while her husband worked outside the home.   In turn she has also felt grateful (and at times surprised) at how much she has enjoyed working for pay. “It hardly feels like work when you can enter such a lovely space everyday and be surrounded by such amazing, caring and funny co-workers”.  She has really appreciated getting to know the students and particularly enjoys the witty banter that can come when students visit the office to sign out for a coffee run or leave for their spare. More specifically, she is very grateful when students sign out in the office even if there is no witty banter to accompany the event. When she is not at work you can find her hunting down new recipes to try, playing board games with her family, finding a strip of sunshine to read a book in and hiking.