Faces of the Valley: Longtime volunteer finds purpose at Knead Community Cafe

Colleen Clark-Sulava hasn’t been one to spend retirement in a rocking chair.

She has been volunteering at Knead Community Cafe in New Kensington since its opening in 2017.

“As much for me as anything, I wanted to feel I was doing something important,” she said. “I want my life in my older age to mean something.”

Clark-Sulava, 71, an Arnold native now living in New Kensington, is among about 125 volunteers at Knead who perform all of the tasks a paid staff would handle at a restaurant. While one of many valued volunteers, she has logged the most volunteer hours at the cafe and is among fewer than a dozen helpers who have been there since the start, said Mary Bode, who founded it with her husband, Kevin.

“She is someone we can rely on,” Bode said. “She’s a big part of the cafe. There would be a hole if she wasn’t here, and we tell her that.”

Clark-Sulava retired from Leechburg Area High School in 2000 after teaching English and speech for 26 years. She and her second husband, Dennis, have been married for 27 years.

In retirement, she had worked as a lifeguard at the YMCA in New Kensington until about four years ago.

She came to a preview for Knead after hearing it was based on the Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen in New York — a “pay what you can” ministry bringing together people from all walks of life.

“I liked the idea of that,” she said. “It’s a community-based restaurant. It does provide meals for anyone who wants a meal or needs a meal. It is a restaurant and not a soup kitchen. A lot of soup kitchens don’t bring the whole community together.”

Clark-Sulava credits Knead with sparking the revitalization New Kensington has been enjoying in recent years.

“I’ve seen this community be bustling, and I’ve seen it be nothing. The idea of this was appealing to me. It was something that would raise New Kensington,” she said. “This was the first real thing that happened. It was the first solid thing. Other people had ideas. Ideas are great, but if you don’t do anything with them they’re not worth anything.”

In the early days at Knead, she remembers others building the large and heavy farm table now in the center of the dining area, with its pallet chandelier above.

“I was cleaning restrooms,” she said.

She has done a little bit of everything since then, whatever has been needed. While preferring to be in the background in the kitchen, she has grown more comfortable being out front on the floor, including recently working the beverage station for the first time.

“Colleen is quiet and reserved, but she’s open to doing whatever we need her to do,” Bode said.

Knead is open for lunch weekdays Tuesday through Friday, and breakfast on Saturdays. Clark-Sulava usually is there two days each week. It’s the people, the staff and the patrons she enjoys most, Bode among them.

“She’s very motherly, very encouraging,” Clark-Sulava said. “She makes you feel like you’re important.”

While Bode says some people volunteer as part of their faith-based practices, Clark-Sulava said she is not a churchgoer.

“Everyone comes to the cafe for a different reason,” Bode said. “Colleen comes here because she believes in this community. She loves the people here. She loves the possibilities.”

In October, Knead’s volunteers put in more than 1,000 hours at the cafe.

“Our model would not be possible without the incredible help and support of the volunteers,” Bode said.

Clark-Sulava said Knead’s growth over the years has been amazing, and it’s ongoing. She’ll keep volunteering there until they kick her out.

“I like coming here. I just like it,” she said. “It’s a nice place to be. I feel like I’m doing something. I’m not wasting my life.”