Single mom volunteers at Everett Center that once helped her

Published 10:41 pm Tuesday, November 13, 2007

EVERETT — Melissa Catlin first came to the South Everett Neighborhood Center to attend a free parenting class. The center offered support, resources and a sense of community to the low-income, single mother.

Today, Catlin, 37, is a regular volunteer, most recently preparing for the center’s open house on Monday.

More people need to know about the help the center offers to families, Catlin said.

“I would recommend the center to anyone who needs help,” she said. “I’m dedicated to the cause because I believe the center does make a difference in our community.”

On any given week, visitors to the center may see pre-schoolers and seniors doing a craft project together, Russian-speaking parents getting help with social service referrals, Spanish-speaking parents working on English-language skills and adults with developmental disabilities in a cooking class.

Juanita Clifford, the center’s 11-year veteran program coordinator, said she is proud of what goes on.

“I’m frequently told that the South Everett Neighborhood Center is the best-kept secret in Everett,” Clifford said. “I don’t want it to be that way anymore. That’s why the doors are open on Monday.”

With any special event such as the open house, the center, an arm of Lutheran Community Services Northwest, must rely on volunteers to make it all happen, Clifford said.

“Melissa is a volunteer I can truly count on,” she said. “She’s easy-going and talented.”

The center even put her calligraphy skills to use for invitations for the open house, Clifford said.

Catlin, who has a part-time job with Camp Fire USA in Everett, rides the bus to the center from her apartment complex on Casino Road. She also is a parent helper at Challenger Elementary School, where her daughter, Mira Catlin, 10, is a student.

At the center, where for the past five years she has volunteered an average of three hours a week, Catlin also is a member of the leadership council, working to help secure funding for the center.

“I enjoy what I do and sometimes it feels like it’s my life. It’s strictly about helping others,” she said. “Growing up I didn’t have a lot of interaction with other people. Everyone here at the center is so friendly and nice.”

Things haven’t always gone so well for Catlin.

Raised in south Everett, she was in foster care several times during her childhood because her mother was ill with chronic heart failure and other problems.

Catlin, a 1989 graduate of Mariner High School, was 21 when her mother died.

“After she passed away, things went downhill. My mother was my best friend,” Catlin said.

When her daughter was born, Catlin said she vowed to raise Mira as she had been raised.

“You do the best you can with your child,” she said. “I’m trying to help my daughter avoid the peer pressure that made life tough for me as a young adult.”

The effort to do her best led Catlin to the parenting class at South Everett Neighborhood Center. Later she also led a toddler play group there.

Her favorite job, however, has been helping stage the center’s participation in National Night Out Against Crime, an annual event held in early August.

The South Everett Neighborhood Center hosts a block party attended by local firefighters and police officers. The evening builds relationships among neighbors and provides safety information, refreshments, entertainment, crafts and activities for kids.

“In south Everett, we hear a lot of gunfire and it’s easy to feel unsafe,” Catlin said. “It’s great knowing we can go to the center and enjoy an event that encourages kids to make the right choices.”

Catlin said she is hoping for a good turnout for the center’s open house on Monday. A slide show is planned and Russian tea and pastries are on the menu.

“I hope people like (County Executive) Aaron Reardon come. We were classmates at Mariner,” Catlin said. “But it doesn’t take well-known people to help out here. I’m an average Joe, but I’m here to make a difference.”

Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.