Minister, Mom, and Manager — Introducing Lyndsie Blakely

By Terry Haycock, 1st Vice President for Membership

Meet Lyndsie Blakely, who has served as our treasurer these past two years. A native Virginian raised in Richmond, she received her bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies and Recreation and Leisure from Virginia Wesleyan University in Virginia Beach (“Well, it’s half in Virginia Beach and half in Norfolk,” explains Lyndsie). She went on to earn a Master of Divinity from Duke University Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina.

Lyndsie served 12 years at the Farmville United Methodist Church. As minister of discipleship, she oversaw all age-level ministries of the church. She left that full-time ministry this past July but continues to preach, serve as a liturgist and occasionally assist with Sunday School.

Lyndsie’s current ministry is as a birth doula in the Farmville community. When she had her first child, she was not happy with the assistance she received from the medical staff, so when she had her second, she traveled all the way to Charlottesville for delivery. Thinking that the women in her community shouldn’t have to travel so far for needed care, she trained as a birth doula, a woman who is employed to provide education, guidance, and support to pregnant women and their partners during labor and delivery. She is grateful for this way of providing service to her community.

But her full-time work is as operations manager at Letterpress Communications, a small marketing firm in Farmville that focuses on community-powered marketing. She has been there for six years, starting as an evening employee who transferred data from a client’s old website to a new one by cutting and pasting it.

During her years there, she has worked her way through a variety of duties, eventually becoming a full-time manager; Lyndsie oversees back-end processes, client management, human relations, etc.

“In a small business, you wear many hats,” notes Lyndsie. She says that the company serves clients throughout Virginia and North Carolina.

Lyndsie is married to Josh Blakely, director of the Brock Experiences Program at Longwood University in Farmville. The program provides opportunities for students to travel to various parts of the country focusing on their diverse civic issues, such as immigration, water management, the environment and oil crises, etc. The courses include a team of faculty members across various disciplines who teach the students what to expect when participating in the travel experience. Lyndsie is enthusiastic about Josh’s work and its importance in the Farmville community.

Josh and Lyndsie have two sons, Noah, 10, and Jeremiah, 6. They are part of the 1000-Hour Outdoor Challenge, which encourages spending 1,000 hours outdoors within a year. So far, they have logged 500.

“We spend time outside every day — including meals. We visit state parks, zoos, and other outdoor places and can already see the benefits,” she says. The boys also participate in soccer, swimming, and band.

Lyndsie loves to read and has eclectic tastes. As the mom of an avid 10-year-old reader, who reads far beyond his age group, she now finds herself reading children’s literature and fiction, fantasy and science fiction, just to make sure his reading material is on track.

Lyndsie also loves singing, which began in church choirs when she was a child and continues to this day. She has also traveled to some interesting places. While in college, she took advantage of spring break trips and summer courses. These included traveling to Greece and Turkey, retracing the footsteps of the Apostle Paul); Costa Rica to work with sea turtles. She has similar interests in sea turtles with VPC member Devin Reese! (See Devin’s profile in the February 2022 issue of Galley Pruf); and San Diego, California, to help clean up the environment. The Blakely family travels each summer to the Boston area to her brother and sister-in-law’s home on the Cape.

How did she ever find the time to be our treasurer? Dedication comes to mind. She cares about serious issues and works hard for her community. In addition to that, time with Lyndsie is a pleasant, positive experience. She is modest about her accomplishments and enthusiastic about life. We are grateful to have had her on our board these past two years.

Plan to meet Lyndsie at our 2022 fall conference. It will be a treat.