Lori Danby

• Name: Lori Danby

• Age: 51

• Family: Husband, Brett; daughter, Cynthia; son, Brian

• City of residence: Yuba City

• Occupation: Human resources and payroll for Frito-Lay

• How long have you lived in the Yuba-Sutter area? Since 1992, moved here from Sacramento

• Hobbies, interests: Crafts

• For what groups do you volunteer? Tri Counties Blue Star Moms — there are three of us five original founders still on the board. We started the local chapter in 2006 and were chartered in 2007 — national Blue Star Moms has been around since World War II. It is not political and supports all branches of the service.

When I was told about my son's pending deployment in the Marines I knew I couldn't handle it alone. People called to ask about the group after a story appeared and we had a lot of people at our first meeting.

We prepare holiday care packages for troops, have shipped more than 1,000 care packages throughout the year just to our local troops, have done an annual 9/11 freedom walk, created and delivered more than 200 daddy/mommy dolls for free to children of deployed troops and are planning a Christmas tree at the mall for troops.

The group is also a support group for those families dealing with deployment.

My son completed his active duty and is considered inactive for three years.

Once our kids have served they are veterans for life. Blue Star Moms are Blue Star Moms for life.

I started volunteering as a kid. I was a Girl Scout, have been on school boards, done Pop Warner football coaching, cheerleading coaching.

• How do you fit it into your schedule? I would not be able to do what I'm doing today if not for the other moms, dads and members volunteering their time working late nights with us.

• Words of advice: Find your passion, find what means the most to you. Helping others is always rewarding. I like to say I will always stay involved with Blue Star Moms.

• Quote: "I've always been able to look next to me and see someone in more need than myself regardless what the issue is."

Volunteer of the Week runs Tuesdays on the Local page. To submit the name of a volunteer to be featured, contact Leticia Gutierrez, Community Editor, at lgutierrez@appeal-democrat.com or call 741-2400.