Marianne joined the Supporting Our Seniors (SOS) Program in February of 2021, when we needed her the most. Marianne’s decision to join SOS during the pandemic showed a lot of courage since during this time a lot of people were still concerned with being exposed to the virus and SOS had lost many volunteers due to these concerns. Marianne took the precautions needed to protect our riders and jumped right into the program, taking as many rides as her scheduled would allow. This made a huge impact for SOS because up to that point staff were still struggling to find available volunteers for many of our riders. The SOS staff has often expressed their gratitude for Marianne.  “She is always flexible for any rides we need her to take and that it’s clear that she puts SOS as a priority,” says Sandra Acevedo, SOS Coordinator. The SOS staff also  enjoy talking to her because she always shares how much she loves the program and is always positive when she talks about the clients. When asked why she volunteers for SOS, Marianne said, “ I love it! People are always so kind and thankful for what we do”.

During her first year with SOS, Marianne volunteered over 111 hours to the program providing essential rides to our homebound seniors. She truly demonstrates the value of relationship by making a difference in many of our riders’ lives. An example of just the kind of person Marianne is comes from one of our riders, Nancy. Nancy told the SOS staff about how on the first anniversary of  her husband’s death, Marianne took her grocery shopping and helped her through that trip with so much grace and was just the most wonderful companion she could have had on that difficult day. Nancy appreciated the extra care Marianne took with her and added that she is just “such a beautiful soul”. Just like with Nancy, SOS staff constantly hear about how kind and helpful Marianne is when they ride with her.

Marianne truly puts people first and embraces our Hilltop values. It is for these reasons and dedication, that she is being nominated for a Hilltop Volunteer Mission Award.