JENNIFER M. WHITENACK
HANDBELL CHOIR DIRECTOR

Ms. Jennifer Whitenack has been Director of the Handbell Program at First Presbyterian Church since Oct of 1989. Currently, she rehearses with a Youth Handbell Choir on Sunday am and an Adult Handbell choir on Thursday evenings. The Adult handbells play in church approximately once per month and the youth play 4-5x a year to enhance the worship service. She looks forward to talking with anyone who is interested in finding out more about the handbell program.

She was baptized at First Pres. and has been playing handbells since elementary school, participated in the chancel choir, and all youth group activities while growing up in the church. It was a notice on the activity bulletin board where she found the information for a music audition that led her to the College of Wooster in Ohio.

After graduating from Wooster with a Bachelor of Music Education, she taught for 14 years as the music teacher at Saint Peter's in Lowville, taught privately for almost 30 years, and in 2005 started the River Ringers Community Handbell Choir. She also works full time as a Quality Assurance Manager from home for a large sales force.

For Fun, especially in the Summer, she performs throughout the Thousand Islands as part of a Steel Drum Duet with Dan Hammond.

She resides North of Watertown with a few animals to keep her company and definitely enjoys the peace and quiet. She is very proud of her adult son, Zac, who moved on to Maine to work at a professional theatre in Bangor. This gives her a reason to take some nice trips through the mountains a few times a year to enjoy what New England has to offer.