Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series that features Alle-Kiski Valley residents and the notable things they do.
Anna Betti plans to start this year the same way she closed out the last one: making meals for fellow Plum residents.
“I’m going to keep going up until I can’t go anymore,” Betti said. “I know I’m making meals for someone who can’t cook for themselves.”
That has been her mission for about 15 years through the Plum Community Center’s Meals on Wheels program.
And it all began during a workout.
“I was up at Silver Sneakers doing my exercises, and someone from the kitchen came out and asked if I could help,” said Betti, 80. “They were short (on volunteers, and) I just kept going back.”
She volunteers Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, preparing 50 to 60 meals each day.
“I enjoy doing all the volunteer work that I do and wish more people would come up and help,” Betti said. “It really helps the elderly.”
She starts around 8:30 a.m. Drivers start delivering around 10:30 a.m.
About 15,000 meals were distributed to 114 seniors last year.
Betti is usually seen wearing glasses and a smile. Her efforts have earned the praise of fellow volunteers, meal recipients and community center food services Director Toni Franco.
“Anna Betti is the epitome of a volunteer,” Franco said. “Anna’s willingness to always help when needed lends to her many other talents she has contributed to our program, which has included sewing, computer skills and working on our newsletter. Through the years of devotion, Anna remains the most humble, amazing, kind and compassionate volunteer, and I honor her friendship.”
Born in Pittsburgh’s Brushton neighborhood, Betti took a bus and street car to St. Raphael’s Girls High School in Morningside. She graduated in 1958.
“There was only 86 girls in my graduating class. It was a small school,” Betti said. “When I graduated, I didn’t know what I was going to do.”
A friend helped get her a job at National Union Fire Insurance as a key punch operator. Her job included punching precise holes into stiff paper cards to be fed into adding machines and other mechanical devices.
After a year there, she took the same job at the Pittsburgh Corning Corp. in Plum, and would become one of the company’s computer programmers.
She earned an associate degree in computer programming from Community College of Allegheny County.
“When I first went into computers, a whole room was a computer, not like we have today,” Betti said. “We had to convert all programs from the cards to direct input.”
She retired from Pittsburgh Corning in 2002 after working 23 years.
In 1962, necessity brought Betti and husband Roy to Plum .
“I had one baby and I was pregnant and couldn’t get another apartment in the city,” Betti said. “We started looking for a house, and (what) we could afford was out here in Plum.
”It was a farming town at that time. My husband had moved several times when he was young, and he said he’s never going to move again. That meant we were staying here, which was fine with me. We like our community living, and we like everything in Plum.”
The Bettis, who are members of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Plum, have been married for 61 years and have four children — three sons and a daughter.
For information on volunteering for Meals on Wheels, email tfranco@plumboro.com.
