The YWCA San Gabriel Valley has selected Marta Escañuelas, Executive Director of MERCI and Past President of Monterey Park Rotary, as its Woman of Achievement for “Promoting Freedom Through Community Service.” Escañuelas and nine other women and two organizations will be honored at the YWCA’s “Honoring Vision and Voice” Conference and Women of Achievement Awards Luncheon May 19, 2011 at the Diamond Bar Center in Diamond Bar, CA. 450 people are expected at this event.

Monterey Park Rotary nominated Marta Escañuelas for her contributions to the field of people with developmental disabilities and for her volunteer work in the community.

Escañuelas has worked at MERCI, which serves individuals with developmental
disabilities, for about 15 years. Besides running MERCI, she is working on acquiring the funding for a new group home, a multipurpose building and expanded office facilities at the Chandler site to replace buildings built before 1920. She has acquired a grant from the City of Monterey Park HUD funds. She is working to fund raise and on other aire de jeux gonflable grants to help fund these three new facilities. Plans are to break ground this April. She has been the co-chair of the Monterey Park Rotary’s Casino Night for the past two-years and is working on the next Casino Night scheduled for Friday, May 6th at the West San Gabriel Boys and Girls Club in Monterey Park. Funds from this successful event have gone to support Rotary’s various endeavors – e.g. Monterey Park’s 4th of July celebration, West San Gabriel Boys and Girls Club, MERCI and the elimination of polio worldwide. She also participates in the volunteer work that Rotary does with the Boys and Girls Club.  Escañuelas is Vice President of the East Los Angeles-Montebello Business and Professional Women, which is part of the California Federation of Business and Professional Women and BPW International. The purpose of this organization is to raise the standards for women through education and equality. Escañuelas lives in Mt. Baldy and has written successful grants for more than $200,000 to California Fire Safety to remove mistletoe from trees and to remove dead trees to help keep fire away – mistletoe can kill trees by sucking away nutrients. Escañuelas serves on the Mt. Baldy Community Association and has been the Chair of the Mt. Baldy Run to the Top. In her spare time she foster parents abandoned dogs.

Rotary International is the oldest and largest service organization in the world. For information on serving your local community through the Monterey Park Rotary, check http://www.clubrunner.ca/CPrg/home/homeA.asp?cid=4711. Monterey Park Rotary usually meets every Thursday at 12:15 P.M. at Capital Seafood, 755 W. Garvey Avenue, Monterey Park. For more information on Rotary International and clubs in other communities see http://www.rotary.org/EN/ABOUTUS/Pages/ridefault.aspx.

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