"If you have been given a gift, you must be accountable, and use it wisely," believes Amanda Porter, Sacred Heart’s Assistant Music Director. "My music has a message. It’s not just for entertainment," she says. Her talent shines as a teacher in the grade school, and as a director of several choirs and play productions.

As a student at Revere High School in Bath Township, she won the Senior Arion for musicianship, sang in the choir, plays and musicals, "all I loved to do," she said.

At the United Church of Christ in Richfield she began singing in the choir and ended up directing it. While a student at the University of Akron she met her husband, Tim,
the youngest son of Tom and Trudy Porter. They were married at Sacred Heart while still students, and both their children, Jacob, 16 and Rachel, 13 were baptized at this parish.

When Tim’s job took them to Florida early in the marriage, Amanda began
cantoring at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Daytona Beach. Her pastor suggested that since she was at the church more than most parishioners, she check out the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adtuls. "I found in it all I had been looking for spiritually, and
always had an interest in Mary and the rosary, from being a part of the Porter family. I hated sitting in that pew during Communion. I was so hungry for the Eucharist," she said.

Tim tried three transfers to get back to Wadsworth because he wanted to give the children real roots, and they have been here since the early 1990s. Eric Pandrea called on Amanda in 1997 to help with the adult choir. During one session he remarked that he needed to find someone to teach music at the
school. "I can do that," Porter felt. So she was hired to teach four days a week in 2002. But she has so many after-school activities every day that it is more than a full-time job. She started the "Singing Hearts" group for second to fourth graders, and from that came the Show Choir for fifth through eighth grade. She also directs the children’s church choir of fifth through eighth grades.

A violinist from age 7, Amanda started a string program and now has 20 strings — including two cellos. The fourth graders learn to play recorders. The eighth graders have written and produced a Christmas play each year. The first year they did "A Christmas Carol" complete with English accents. Last year, they produced four plays. "The children come up with all the ideas. I steer and direct where they want to go. It gives the play great life, and creativity," she says. At the other end of the age span, she directs the adult choir. "I find it fun to be with adults after children all day, and their music is more challenging," she said. In 2002, she received a bachelor of art in music degree and holds a certificate to teach in private schools. "I’m very fulfilled in what I am doing now," she said, "but sometime I would like to get a master’s degree and teach at the college level." — JOAN BRANNIGAN