Biography
Wendy McKay loves the Lord, her beloved husband and 9 incredible children. All have graduated or are attending University. Her oldest is a neurosurgeon, second a lawyer and one runs a successful Startup. All seven sons are Eagle Scouts, daughters earned their Young Woman Recognition and 8 of the 9 children have served full-time church missions in seven different countries with the youngest applying.
Wendy received her Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University and her design firm, McKay & Co. has donated thousands of hours pro bono. She was a State delegate, serves on the Huntsville Town Council raising over a million dollars, is a 6 time PTA/PTO president, 11 year chair of the “Fall Walk-A-Thon” raising thousands of dollars for teachers personal use and started a community non-profit to provide Pickleball courts and affordable tennis lessons. With her family she is an activist against pornography and sex trafficking. They love town clean-ups, taking neighbors on horse rides, chairing Pioneer treks, building homes in Mexico, sewing over 1000 masks for Covid First Responders and Hurricane clean-ups.
Watch Wendy’s three-minute speech on “What Being a Mother Means to Me.”
Philosophy on Parenting
“I teach them correct principals and they govern themselves.” ~ Joseph Smith
Early on in motherhood I had an epiphany… Children learn by example and experience, not from
lecture. I had to be ever creative in incorporating experiences that would instill in them the areas of
character building that were non-negotiable: Love for others, love of learning, honesty, orderliness,
compassion, taking personal responsibility, hard work, respect, service, loyalty to family and country
and a deep-seated faith in God. One such experience came after our 7th sons birth. Their faith grew
when their simple prayers were answered and their beloved dad who was almost fatally electrocuted in
front of them, came home from the burn unit after a month. (Silver lining… after the electrocution, we
had our two girls!)
Motherhood is the greatest and the hardest path, only traversed with God’s help. It is my life’s work. If
children know they are your top priority, they will have the confidence to live up to their potential.
Through experiences…auctions, a park sand volleyball court, toys for special needs groups, walk-athons,
helping neighbors or serving rescued women in Thailand, there is a natural sense of joy and
character building that comes from serving that you can’t teach…they have to experience it.
You teach them correct principals by example and experience and you humbly apologize when your
example is wanting. You make a safe space to fail in so they are never afraid to try. You play with
them and cheer them on in their activities. You laugh… a lot. You love them unconditionally and give
them age appropriate structure, consistency with the family rules they helped to make, daily chores and
daily time spent together on their spiritual growth. The greatest gift you can give them is a trust that
they will be heard and loved by you no matter what and a knowledge of where they can turn for divine
help, knowing that their prayers will be heard.
Motherhood and Community
“The only thing necessary for the triump of evil is for good [women] to do nothing.”
~ Edmund Burke
I have always loved to serve and the areas I have chosen are all things that have involved my family.
We fought against pornography in the public libraries taking petitions around to various schools,
churches, county governments and neighbors. My children were such a big part of doing the work, and
that was a great bonding time. That led to Days for Girls. Our 6th son served a mission in Thailand,
where sex trafficking is rampant. We chose to take hundreds of homemade hygiene kits over as the
victim’s families abandoned them after they had been taken and rescued. This was absolutely life
changing as we met with these suffering women.
The second area, our family got involved in was for our community and running the first 4th of July
auction which took months of gathering items for sale. Our oldest took this on as an Eagle project and
never did we imagine that we would raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for our park over the next
decade. It became something we looked forward to each year. That turned into chairing the 4th of July
booths for several years and finally running the entire celebration. That long involvement led to my
running for Huntsville town council. I am the only woman to serve on the council which gives a
unique opportunity to hear a mother’s voice. As the grant writer we raised over a million dollars from
RAMP and CDBG for our park, ice skating rink and a new Municipal & Community Center.
And finally one of the most enjoyable stemmed from our son wanting to take Tennis lessons. With no
tennis program within 40 minutes and less than $50 an hour, my two friends and I created the Ogden
Valley Tennis and Pickleball Association 501(c)3 in 2011. I wrote some grants, raised money and we
added 7 Pickleball courts to the Ogden Valley. We created summer tennis lessons for only $15 an hour
coached by 3 local Highschool head coaches. Dozens of students from our valley have now gone on to
play for the Varsity high school teams, some winning Region and State. The pickleball courts are
everyone’s favorite and are consistently full of families from grandparents to young children.
Comment about Wendy: Wendy is a mother who loves to laugh with her children but recognizes motherhood as a God given responsibility. Her early epiphany led to a life’s work of providing opportunities to teach by example and give character building experiences to her family.