Member Spotlight: Helen Sotirakis

We’re really hoping March showers bring April flowers for Helen Sotirakis, a Confluence AmeriCorps member serving with the Housing Authority of Clackamas County, who’s been hard at work outside getting ready for the growing season to start.

While HACC has been a program partner with us for quite a while, this is the first time we’ve brought someone to the cohort who is part of the site, having lived there and worked with our past members before deciding to try out AmeriCorps for herself. Helen joined seeking to improve her community’s understanding of and access to good food, and she’s been busy since!

Through her position, she’s been able to put her deep knowledge of gardening to good use; several raised beds in the back of the building, frequented by the entire community, benefit from her regular weeding, care, and maintenance. She’s expanding the existing garden space into the park behind HACC property, where she plans to grow more food for the community. Meanwhile, she’s been planning cooking demos that feed people weekly while engaging them in the process, tying the food to where it comes from – right out back.

While this is what she came to AmeriCorps to do, she was also able to discover an affinity for event planning that she and her supervisor have been able to put to great use! The community has been able to benefit from regular evening events where she shares food from the food pantry and provides an important place to gather.

Helen “always has a project,” as she likes to say, and we’re looking forward to seeing where the next few months with AmeriCorps take her!

She’s also always on the lookout for volunteers! If you want to get involved with her great work, feel free to reach out to her at hsotirakis[at]clackamas.us.