Kenneth Poe Funeral Services

March 24, 2020

CHARLOTTE – It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Cindy Monteith, who passed away on 24 March at 8:11pm in Hospice care after a long battle with ALS. Cindy was the mother to Hadley, Addison Thom and MaryScot Thieme & the Toddy to Bennet, Hero, Tempe, Avery & Charlotte. Cindy was dancing and singing even at the end of her life and was surrounded by friends and family when she passed.

To those who knew Cindy, she was a woman of many talents. She wore many hats for different people. She was an accomplished singer, tennis player, basketball coach, minister, the Director for Well-being & Support for the largest ambulance company in Australia, a mother, and a Toddy. No matter what Cindy Monteith was doing, she made even the most mundane tasks joyful & exciting.

Cindy was an adventurer; she traveled all over the United States and the world with her friends and family. She lived in three countries, over a dozen cities and visited half the globe throughout her life. Every place she lived, she crossed new frontiers with her parishes, her friends, and the community. In her earlier years, she toured the country with her band and sang at Lake Junaluska. After she became a minister, she was most famous for her Friday night “Coffee Houses” that encouraged young middle school and high school students to have a safe place to gather, create and build a community. She started these Friday night gatherings in Chapel Hill and took them all over the country, and later to Australia & New Zealand.

While she was the Director of Well-being & Support at St. John’s Ambulance Western Australia, she created a Mental Health First Aid program which was the first of kind for the industry and the region. She went on to have a TEDX talk feature where she spoke about this venture and the power of your story in healing.

Cindy had this incredible ability to gather people from all walks of life and welcome them into the church or her home. The church was never defined by a building, but by the people who walked through the doors. By congregating people from different backgrounds, she was able to create some of the most amazing projects and performances to bring healing and joy to different communities.

The last two years of her life, she moved back to her home, North Carolina, where she surrounded herself with dear friends and even when she was ill she was still pushing the boundaries of her illness by gathering people to raise money for the Joe Martin ALS Foundation where she walked across the finish line in May 2019.

The culmination of Cindy’s lifework lives on in ArtSpoke. As the founding director, Cindy brought her unique community building skills and mental health research to create this amazing organization. ArtSpoke empowers children, adolescents, and young adults to live authentically with courage, to lead with kindness, build resiliency, and embrace vulnerability in order to build positive mental health.

If you would like to donate on behalf of Cindy, www.ArtSpoke.org or the Joe Martin ALS Foundation are the families charities of choice.

Due to COVID-19, family has decided to postpone Cindy’s celebration of life service, until a later date when friends and family can gather and celebrate her incredible life.

In the meantime, please feel free to share memories of Cindy on her Facebook page, it means a lot to us to hear memories of our mom!

Arrangements are in the care of Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service, 1321 Berkeley Ave., Charlotte, NC 28204; (704) 641-7606. Online condolences can be shared at www.kennethpoeservices.com.