Featured Volunteer: Ellen Pettersen

“I’ve lived a lot of years here in Moss Beach, always aware of Coastside Hope (originally known as the Coastside Opportunity Center) – I helped out a bit, donated a little.

For a while, I was growing a family and commuting over the hill to work as a school counselor in a series of low income (majority of students on free/reduced lunch) public schools. Those schools were within districts which included families which were wealthy or at least comfortably middle-class.

So it is here on the Coastside – ‘have a lots’ and ‘have a littles’ living near to each other, yet barely touching – maybe coming together in school classrooms, public housing, at the stoplight at Strawflower.

I helped with last year’s Adopt-A-Family, shopping for a family of four, acutely aware of how much $$ it takes at a discount dept. store to buy “the basics” – how do they do it?!

I look forward to Monday mornings at the food pantry – I feel good when I can point out a box of gingerbread to a young mother with her bright-eyed, little boy or 12 oz. of Starbucks coffee to a lonely, hungry neighbor.

Why do I do this? To quote an American leader who is misquoted (a lot): ‘I do it because it’s the right thing to do.’
AND, it feels good!”