Most people do not know that Maria Quach, Church of Our Saviour’s sexton, has been part of the COS family since 2014. At that time, Maria was experiencing a difficult time in her life and she decided she wanted to keep busy. She began volunteering at Our Saviour Center’s (OSC) food pantry twice a week. Realizing that helping others brought her out of herself, Maria found that interacting with clients and meeting new people helped her feel better. Over time, she learned how to run the food pantry’s logistics and began orienting first-time volunteers on how to ensure that tasks like food packing were efficiently and effectively done.
After six years, Natalia Pacheco, the housekeeper at OSC, asked Maria if she would be willing to cover for her during her vacation. Natalia was a faithful employee who had cared for the offices and food pantry for many years; she soon began to rely on Maria to cover more of her shifts. Maria, revealing herself to be a gem, was then hired to clean the food pantry after her shifts as a volunteer. When Maria was tasked with cleaning the OSC kitchen, Yuhadhi Sundaramoorthy, former parish administrator, took notice.
Over the next few months, Yuhadhi attempted to coax Maria over to COS, calling her multiple times to ask if she was interested in extra hours of work. Frank, the former head sexton, was also making the case. Happy at the food pantry, Maria did not immediately return their phone calls.
After being convinced that she should give COS a try, Maria agreed to come work at the church when she was not at the food pantry, beginning in January of 2021.
“I like to work at my own pace. [Here] no one pressures me, and the staff, who in all my years of being in the workforce [most] appreciates and recognizes my hard work,” she explains. Maria’s dedication and loyalty to our campus is unparalleled.
If you have ever had the opportunity to notice her work ethic, can-do attitude, and kind demeanor, you will agree that Maria is a true Renaissance woman, even when she’s not on campus. She loves carpentry, painting, plumbing and learning electrical work. At her San Gabriel home, she sews, cooks and enjoys gardening. Maria is also fascinated by auto diagnostics and repair. Overall, she is obsessed with ensuring that everything belongs in its proper place. You would be most surprised that she has a scary movie collection of over 2,300 titles, including the complete and hard-to-find Godzilla film collection!
The next time you see Maria, undoubtedly making our campus sparkle and shine, be sure to tell her how grateful you are for her extraordinary service.