Our First Featured Volunteer: Roxanne Cobb

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.  The world is moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. – Helen Keller

Everyday there are heroes, those visible such as soldiers, police officers, firefighters, doctors and nurses.  But there are also those who are not so visible, everyday people as everyday heroes.  That is how I see our volunteers in our MRC unit, all of you volunteer your time to help better our community, whether it is giving vaccine to people who could otherwise not receive it, providing first aid at community events, or even just training to be better prepared for a disaster or emergency. 

One of my intentions of creating this blog is to feature one of our volunteers every month.  We have so many wonderful volunteers, and it might be hard for all of you to get to know each other, and I thought it would be great to highlight one of our volunteers a month.

With that, I would like to present our first featured volunteer, Roxanne Cobb!  A lot of you might already know Roxanne, as she is very outgoing and has quite the personality!  She has also dedicated a significant amount of hours to our MRC this year, and even some to the Mason County MRC.  She put in roughly 130 hours for the Paddle to Squaxin event, working at the First Aid Clinic in Nisqually, Burfoot Park, and Swantown Marina and for a week at the Squaxin Island Tribe.  She has also been quite the vaccinator this year, participating in all but a handful of our vaccine clinics.

Roxanne got involved with the MRC to give back to the community, but to also keep her hand in nursing.  Roxanne worked for Providence St. peter Hospital for 30 years as a Registered Nurse specializing in Neuro Nursing.  “I thrive on helping.  I am very blessed with good health, a wonderful husband, great friends and a loving family.  There is nothing better than helping someone without wanting anything in return.  The smiles and thank yous are enough.”

Roxanne was born in Ritzville over in Adams County Washington, the fourth child of five.  She eventually went on to Walla Walla Community College for her nursing degree.  Her husband Rich, is a civil engineer and has retired 3 times from state and city jobs, but still works part time managing property in Lacey and Canada for a Hong Kong firm.  Roxanne has three daughters (Teresa, Penny, and Shannon) and three granddaughters (Alyssa, Piper, and Ashlyn).

Even in her golden years of retirement, Roxanne likes to keep herself busy.  She has a huge garden that she likes to care for.  She loves to read “anything that doesn’t move too fast”.  She also loves needlepoint, cross stitching and quilting, making personalized bags using fabrics that show off the owner’s hobby or interests and has made over 300 bags!

Roxanne has also acquired quite the travel bug.  She has recently returned from a 10 day trip in Panama spent on a catamaran with 21 passengers and 10 crew members.  “The Panama Canal is so impressive, especially knowing it was built 100 years ago and still functions perfectly.  We were dwarfed by the Canal and the humungous freighters and cruise liners.”  Not too long after returning from her trip to the Panama Canal, she began preparing for another trip to Hawaii, “I get spoiled on my birthday.”  In April she will be spending two weeks in Italy attending her exchange students wedding.  She has also spent 13 days paddling down the Grand Canyon.  She has been on numerous white water rafting trips, flown around Mt. McKinley in a helicopter, spent a month in Australia, visited Belize and biked a week around Amsterdam.

Roxanne’s favorite MRC experience has been “working 130 hours in the first aid ten during the Paddle to Squaxin.  It was a wonderful learning experience, very moving and spiritual.”  Although Roxanne spends quite a bit of time with us, and between her various hobbies and travel, she still has time to be a member of the P.E.O. a woman’s organization that raises money for women’s scholarships.  “This summer, 72 women dressed in pearls, hats and gloves come to an outdoor tea party at my house to help celebrate our chapter’s 100^th birthday.  We provide two $1000 high scholarships every year.” 

Roxanne has quite the busy live if I do say.  It has been quite interesting to learn more about her as one of our volunteers on a deeper level than just through the MRC.  I will be reaching out to another one of volunteers next month, so who knows it could be one of you!