Helping Others Fulfills Dream For Food Bank Worker
Isabel Marquez has no trouble remembering reasons to be thankful. They greet her every day.
“I always told my mother, one day I’m going to help people,” says Marquez, 37, now director of the Shoshone County Food Bank. “My dream came true.”
It was a big dream for a child who grew up in rural Colorado with hand-me-downs and hauled water.
“We were poor,” she says. “Dad worked in a sawmill. He worked very hard. But I was in fourth grade before we moved to town and got indoor plumbing.”
Her love for her job is obvious. She addresses the diverse concerns of three people at once with bubbly efficiency, talking all the while.
“See that?” she asks, gesturing at a shelf piled with pineapples and pumpkins. “That’s from the salvage program we started.”
She bounces into the back room to display a freezer full of slightly outdated bakery items, donated, like the produce, by Stein’s IGA. People who don’t qualify for food stamps may be eligible to receive a salvage card, Marquez explains.
Business is up from last year. What does the food bank need?
“Food, money, anything. Anything and everything,” she says.
“The people who left when Bunker went down are coming back. We also have a lot of people who just visit on vacation, like it, and move here. Trouble is, there are no jobs.”
Marquez finds it easy to empathize with her clients. She’s sat on the other side of the desk. A single mom, she had to rely on public assistance when she moved to Shoshone County in 1982.
“At that time, you worked for your check. I volunteered here for two or three years, then it worked into a part-time job, then finally full time. AFDC and food stamps are nice when you need them, but it’s wonderful to get off,” she says.
She always tries to make her clients feel good about receiving a boost.
“There are people who’ve always lived here who’ve had to come in for the first time. One woman broke down and cried. It broke my heart. I told her it’s all right, it’s all right. That’s what we’re here for.”
For the children
Tuesday, all Shoshone County residents will have a chance to share their blessings. That’s when the second annual Christmas Fund Radiothon hits the airwaves.
The brainchild of County Clerk Marcia Wingfield, KWAL Radio’s Paul Robinson, and Sharon Connors, director of social services for Shoshone County, the radiothon netted more than $8,000 for toys for children last year. Its organizers hope it will do even better this year.
“We’re trying to get some challenges going between different entities - fun competition,” Connors said.
For years, two separate funds have served the long-divided Silver Valley. The Judy Lavergne Memorial Fund covered the area from Big Creek to Mullan, while the newly renamed Dave Smith Memorial Fund took care of the towns west to Rose Lake.
The radiothon lets the two projects work together.
“It’s turning into a cooperative thing that starts at Montana and stretches to Kootenai County,” Connors said. “There are cutoff lines, but we’re sharing money, ideas, toys and time. And it’s about time.”
Women run the town
With a woman mayor, a woman Chamber of Commerce manager, and a woman city clerk/ treasurer, Wallace was already a town powered by females.
Now, it’s added women in two more key positions. One is already busy issuing parking tickets. The other will soon be visible at the wheel of a snowplow.
Mayor Debbie Mikesell says snowplow operator Laurie Gray comes to her job with experience in working for Zanetti Brothers, a well-known local contractor, and for the Idaho Transportation Department.
“She came with wonderful qualifications. We’re happy to have her,” Mikesell said.
Tracey Gagdon, the new parking enforcement officer, was recommended by the city of Kellogg. City Clerk Jane Hays says she’s handled the inevitable confrontations pleasantly and with tact.
Some things just need that female touch.