Monica Oszust, a SaddleBrooke Community Outreach Volunteer, Enjoys Working with Kids | Community

Monica Oszust is the incredibly busy Thursday Day manager of SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) Kids’ Closet in Mammoth. At Kids’ Closet, pre-school through eighth grade students living in towns from Catalina north to Miami and the San Carlos Apache reservation receive a new school wardrobe and two new books every fall and spring. Each child is assisted by a volunteer “personal shopper” who helps ensure he or she receives clothing that fits.

Monica’s role as Day Manager involves receiving the list of students coming to the Closet each Thursday session, preparing a shopping sheet and bag for each child, conducting the volunteer meeting, checking to ensure each child leaves with a complete wardrobe and checking the volunteers in and out. Basically, she is the “go to” person for the day, resolving any issues and helping ensure the kids and volunteers have a good experience. Some of the funding for Kids’ Closet comes from money raised by the Golden Goose Thrift Shop (proceeds are split evenly between SBCO and Impact of Southern Arizona).

Monica says that she loves seeing the children’s faces light up with pride in their new school wardrobes furnished by Kids’ Closet. She also appreciates actually seeing how some of the proceeds from the Golden Goose Thrift Store are used.

Born and raised in Ohio, Monica was never one to let the grass grow (for very long) under her feet. After obtaining a business degree and acting as a buyer for a department store, she moved to Chicago but then spent 10 years living in the US Virgin Islands and running several beauty shops.

After getting tired of the hurricanes, she moved to Vail, Colorado and owned three beauty shops there. However, natural disasters had a way of following her and she moved again after her log house was hit by lightning and burned down!

Since her husband, John, is a Canadian citizen, they next moved to Vancouver, B.C. for six years. No natural disasters befell her there, but after tiring of the cold weather, Monica and John moved to Kauai, Hawaii where they lived for 13 years. While there, she became involved in the Rotary Club, eventually becoming president of the Club. Finally, she and her husband moved to SaddleBrooke Ranch.

Monica has continued her work with the local Rotary Club. Currently one of its major initiatives is to fight human trafficking, including educating children at-risk as to the dangers and providing them with support.

In her spare time, Monica plays pickleball and golf and rides bikes with her husband. She also is an accomplished maker of quilts, which she often donates to silent auctions for the Rotary Club and other volunteer programs.