"I owe my happiness to volunteering," Kurtz said. "I tell all my friends they really should get involved, do things for others. It makes you feel good."

       Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, Inc. (KAFASI), is happy to count Kurtz as one of the agency's willing workers. Every weekday morning, she can be found packaging food for Meals on Wheels and More Program that operates out of Westosha Community Center in Bristol.

     The 75-year-old Kurtz has been donating her time and talents to KAFASI for more than 10 years. Since 1996, she has clocked 2,800 hours doing various tasks for the organization.

     On the day we talked, Kurtz and the nutrition crew had just finished packaging cheese-stuffed shells and buttered peas in containers designed to keep food hot for Meals on Wheels. The menu for the day also included spinach salad, Italian bread, apricot halves and a beverage. 

    About 60 meals are picked up at the Westosha Community Center, and delivered by volunteer drivers to elderly and disabled residents in rural areas of the county. City residents are served from a separate facility.

   Since the community center is also an Adult Nutrition meal site for seniors and for the Daybreak West program for Alzheimer patients, Kurtz also helps with those duties. 

    Besides helping with the meal program, Kurtz is a volunteer driver for KAFASI's Driver Escort program. Three days a week she drives a person to a local hospital for kidney dialysis. Twice a week, she takes a woman to a local nursing home to visit her husband.    

          Volunteering is so deeply ingrained in Kurtz that she even gives up vacation time to help others. On a trip to visit her brother in Pennsylvania, she spent time helping out at her brother's church.

    Earlier this year, Kurtz was recognized for her outstanding support and dedication to the community with presentation of an engraved gift brick at KAFASI's Volunteer Vista in Kenosha's Eichelman Park.

    Dana Tehako-Esser, KAFASI Volunteer Services Coordinator, said Elva was nominated for the honor by KAFASI staff and fellow volunteers.

    "One thing that was consistent with her nomination was her big smile that warms the hearts of all," said Tehako-Esser. "She is truly loved and admired by everyone."

     Kurtz calls herself a Wisconsin transplant. She moved to Kenosha County in 1968 when her late husband was transferred to the Midwest because of his job. The family, which included four children, moved to a home in Bristol.

     "It was a traumatic move for me," Kurtz recalled. "I was very homesick the first year I lived out here, but we were welcomed by this community with open arms. This whole area has been good to me."

     The Kurtz family includes two sons, Donald, who lives in Bristol, Albert of Lexington, KY, and two daughters, Jane Powers, Kenosha, and Faye Piette, Beaver Dam. Kurtz also has ten grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

      Elva began volunteering while she was still employed. She spent 13 years at Washington Manor, working as a nursing assistant and helping out in the activities department.

      "I was coming to the Westosha Community Center to volunteer on my days off, so after I retired, I started coming every day," she said. "Now it's like my second home."

      Tehako-Esser said KAFASI is in need of volunteers like Kurtz for the Adult Nutrition Program, Meals on Wheels, Driver Escort and other programs.