21 Things You Might Not Know About Me: Faith Tasker

This week's "21 Things You Might Not Know About Me" features Faith Tasker.

1. I work for Tim Reedy State Farm Insurance in Spooner. I didn’t seek the position. I was asked to come in for an interview & I almost didn’t do it, as I thought insurance was probably boring. Eleven years & 7 months later, I love my job & have never once been bored!
2. My family moved from Eau Claire to Spooner when I was 8 & starting 3rd grade @ Hammill Elementary School downtown Spooner where the Ice Hockey arena sits now.
3. I am a PK(preacher’s kid) & loved growing up in the parsonage next door to my Dad’s church. The church congregation was my extended family.
4. Although I called Spooner home, I left town for my junior and senior years of high school & attended a private boarding school in Fergus Falls, MN; Hillcrest Lutheran Academy. Built in1902 it was a massive four-story structure complete with many spires, giving it the look of a castle. One of the best places on earth! I lived there with students from all over the United States & about a dozen other countries. 
5. I’ve been singing all my life. I started doing solos at age 8, sometimes for thousands of people. Private voice lessons for many years helped me & I was accepted as part of two concert choirs & also tour different smaller ensembles & was privileged to tour for each of these groups, representing  Hillcrest, & then later Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, IN where I attended college. Tours covered the east coast, west coast, 10 mid-west states & 4 provinces in Canada.
6. On tour in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in June 1976, the other 3 female members of the group & I were walking by a huge hotel & saw a lot of reporters & TV cameras gathered. When the interview was done, we followed the “celebrities” inside & followed them to the elevator. The bodyguards asked what we wanted & we said we wondered who they were guarding. We were invited to board the elevator & rode with them all to their room. (Can you believe the audacity of trusting American teenagers?!? Would NEVER happen now). We were given a private audience with His Royal Majesty Prince Masitsela of Swaziland, his wife & entourage. We stayed for about 30 minutes & he graciously inquired about our lives as US teenagers on musical tour in Canada, while we naively inquired about the royal life of Swaziland!  He got our addresses & mailed each of us a personally signed Christmas card that year. He is still living, and about 4 years ago, one of my tour mates spoke directly on the phone with him regarding African business endeavors. He remembered us!
7. I have 3 amazing grown children, Seth, Bryce, & Afton & 2 awesome step sons, Tim & Todd. Three of them are married & we have one 12 year old grandson, Devon, who is in 7th grade. 
8. My husband, Tom, & I were married on an island on the Chippewa Flowage in Sawyer County. We took the guests to the island on a pontoon flotilla. It was a perfect sunny day in July & people stopped in their boats to watch the ceremony. Tom’s sister played flute, & we had a brass quartet providing music, an arbor filled with flowers, red carpet aisle runner & gorgeous view. It was the place he took me on our first date.
9. We lost my daughter on a long hike in the Black Hills near Mt Rushmore when she was 9. We launched a frantic search. She came walking in to the campground a couple hours later unharmed. I don’t ever want to repeat an event like that!
10. In 2009 I fulfilled a long-held dream. I made a Christmas CD of some of my favorite songs. That December I held a CD release benefit concert along with some super talented friends & we raised a few thousand dollars for Washburn County Salvation Army. 
11. We keep our pontoon on a slip on Long Lake near Sarona & enjoy taking long leisurely cruises on our favorite lake. We love including friends & family & cooking brats out on the sandbar!
12. I am not a fan of winter. I love spring, summer & fall in WI & think it’s a gorgeous place, but cold weather- not a fan.
13. Thus, my favorite part of winter is a trip to anyplace tropical! Palm trees, ocean breezes, sunshine & my toes in the sand is all I need for a happy winter. 
14. I went parasailing for the first time in Mazatlán, Mexico in 2016 & loved it! I was singing the whole time while looking down on the little people below.
15. I’ve been a member of Intermezzo Music Club since 1988 & love helping & encouraging middle school & high school students in their musical education & performance through our student audition/award program & annual Advent concert!
16. I went to Colorado in October where I got surprised by my kids for a long birthday weekend in the mountains & hot springs & even had fresh avocados delivered to me by “Phil the avocado guy” who was actually my son Bryce from Washington, DC in disguise as part of the surprise!
17. One mile out of Spooner on the way back from Colorado, we hit a bear at 3 AM.
18. So happy to be a member of Spooner Wesleyan Church where I’m involved in music & worship. I’m thankful for down to earth straight forward & tangible messages of God’s love.
19. We just built a new house outside Spooner & moved in the middle of September. I’m FINALLY almost done unpacking.
20. My best friend & I moved next door to each other when we were both age 2. We’ve roomed together, travelled & made music our whole lives. 
21. One of the best days of my life was May 17th, 2008 when my daughter Afton & I celebrated SYTTENDE MAI ; the Norwegian Independence Day in Bergen, Norway with wonderful Norwegian friends. Celebrating my Norwegian heritage in my grandparents homeland was indescribably meaningful!