SEQUIM — She describes herself as “a tough old broad.”
But Venay Money is several other things: mother and grandmother, volunteer with Healthy Families of Clallam County, the Puget Sound Blood Center, the Voices for Veterans.
And this summer she was named the nation’s Community Volunteer of the Year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.
Money isn’t that old — just 65 — but she’s indisputably tough.
And she does her profligate volunteer work to pay what she sees as a debt.
When she organizes events to help homeless veterans, or when she ran a home for battered women, Money’s energy is fueled by memories of being homeless, and battered.
At 27, Money found herself divorced and the breadwinner for her six children, all under age 10.
“I was liberated before it became popular,” she said.
But Money had only an 11th-grade education.
She could always get a job — and sometimes held three at a time — but her wages often didn’t cover her bills.
At one point, the family lived with their black Labrador retriever in a station wagon in Seattle.
That lasted only 10 days before Money found a place to live.
But her memory of those days is still vivid.
