Helpers: Bev Moss
Bev Moss and Jeff Messinger pose during the 2020 Care Affair at The Coeur d'Alene Resort. The event raises money for CDAIDE, a nonprofit doing local outreach among underserved hospitality workers.
Courtesy photo
COEUR d’ALENE — Bev Moss could joke about the saying about rolling stones gathering no moss, but she’d rather show you the work she's done in the community.
Shane Solorza nominated her since she’s “one of the most consistent and helpful volunteers we have to date.”
After moving to Coeur d’Alene from the Midwest decades ago with her husband, Steve, Moss never really slowed down.
She served as a board member of CDAIDE, volunteers through the First Presbyterian Church of Coeur d’Alene, and was a founding board member of the HomeShare Kootenai County, which allows two or more unrelated people to share housing to overcome some of the area’s housing issues.
CDAIDE assists the hospitality industry with rent among other things, which flowed naturally into her work with HomeShare since housing is a huge concern in that community.
Her background runs far afield. One of her favorite jobs was being a flight attendant and union negotiator at Horizon Air.
“It's a great way to meet a lot of different people,” Moss said.
The position did offer some unusual complications, however, after the 9/11 attacks in 2001 left airline staff stranded in unexpected locations, and she had to step in to smooth things out while the planes remained on the ground.
“All the flights went down, and all the flight attendants were down in funny places they shouldn’t have been. I was in Montana trying to negotiate what the airline would pay for and what the flight attendants would pay for,” Moss said.
“There's so many divisions in any community, but in my nonprofit work and working as a volunteer, it pulls people together and focuses them on something important that’s going to make life better,” Moss said.
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So often volunteers go unnoticed in our community, so here’s your chance to praise members of our community for making things a little brighter in North Idaho.
Email Carolyn Bostick at cbostick@cdapress.com to nominate an individual in your life to be features as one of our helpers in Kootenai County.
*Clarification: Bev Moss served as a board member of CDAIDE, she was not a founding member.