My name is Monica Elias-Orellana. I was born in California and moved to Chelsea, Massachusetts, when I was 11 years old. It was then that I was introduced to the Episcopal Church, where I found myself embraced by God’s call to “serve thy neighbor.” I was taught early in life that I must help others even if I possess little.
As a teenager I volunteered at the soup kitchen and pantry at St. Luke’s-San Lucas. I also got involved with the youth group at what I began to call my church. The Rev. Edgar Gutiérrez -Duarte, who is the priest there, encouraged my sisters and me to reactivate the youth group, and with his support we were incredibly happy to lead it.
After I graduated from high school, I attended the University of Massachusetts in Boston, where I graduated with a degree in Biology and a minor in Asian American Studies.
I thought I wanted to be a physician, but my call and my passion has always been serving the community. While in college, I volunteered at a local nonprofit, The Neighborhood Developers, where soon after I was hired, I became the Chelsea Community building manager, a position I still hold. My role is to organize the Chelsea residents who have been most impacted by the housing crisis. Together, we work to create systemic change. Other areas of my work include relationship building, leadership development, and creating opportunities for empowering residents to participate in municipal decision making.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, we have seen a high rate of infection and sadly many deaths in Chelsea. Families are forced to live in a single apartment because rents are awfully expensive in the city. Chelsea has a housing crisis, and the community has an ever bigger and immediate need for food and other urgent necessities.
When I found out that my church was the center of food distribution for the city of Chelsea, I offered to help. Soon after, I started volunteering my time at St. Luke’s-San Lucas. The Neighborhood Developers saw value in the service I was offering the Chelsea community. So, since March 2020, they have allocated some of my hours to St. Luke’s-San Lucas as their volunteer coordinator.
In my work as community organizer, I am fortunate to work with a strong base of community members. I am able to constantly recruit volunteers to help run the operation of St. Luke’s, where every week we receive more than 19,000 pounds of food, serving more than 500 families.
For me it is an honor to work with community members who, with love and dedication, serve families in need. My heart is full of joy and my eyes rejoice at seeing the beauty of local community members coming together to help one another. I have met incredible people who have worked many hours unloading boxes of food into the church, unpacking them, and distributing the food and other necessities given to the community. I admire that labor of love despite fears of exposure to the deadly virus. I am moved as I watch families come to the pantry for food and sometimes see tears and expressions of gratitude as they receive what they need to survive these difficult times.
It has been a blessing to work in my childhood church along with amazing individuals like Rev. Edgar Gutiérrez-Duarte. I am filled with joy now as an adult working with my childhood leaders! Now, I lead with them and call them my peers. Although sometimes it has not been an easy journey, I have met amazing people along the way. My hope is to be able to similarly inspire others to serve the community and to serve as mentors to young women of color.