Service Above Self Top Honor Goes to Sister Jeanette Braun

In front of a cheering crowd of 200 guests at the Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay’s annual fundraiser Magic of the Coastside on Saturday June 2nd, Sister Jeanette Braun was recognized as the 2018 recipient of the Service Above Self Award. She received the top honor and was recognized along with her fellow finalists Deputy Shawn Chase, Mary Oldham, and Jeff Perls for their outstanding volunteer contributions to the Coastside. 2018 marks the seventh year for this award. The Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay started this tradition to honor the Rotary ideal of Service Above Self, and actively seeks nominations from the local nonprofit community at large.

For the last 6 years and working 6-7 days a week, Sister Jeanette Braun SND has led the way for Table of Plenty to become a valuable, “portable, renewable resource” serving the community of Half Moon Bay. Under Sr. Jeanette’s leadership and hands-on management expertise, Table of Plenty has served supper to struggling families, elders, and homeless in our surrounding coastal community every Thursday evening for 52 weeks a year.

Sister Jeanette has a long legacy of service, with more than 60 years as a Sister of Notre Dame. In her acceptance of the award, Sister Jeanette thanked the community for the service they give, typical of her quiet strength and modesty. She captured the vision for Table of Plenty in her own words, “We honor the dignity of each person. Whether you cook the food, serve it, or greet our guests, our standard is high: We all strive to reflect LOVING ONE ANOTHER as each volunteer works to create a memorable supper for everyone. Our TOP volunteers range from 13-80+ years-old. They work together bringing their smiles, warmth and kindness to each guest, who may hunger for more than food.” Every Thursday evening, the Table of Plenty volunteers create a beautiful dining room, complete with table cloths, fresh flowers, real plates and flatware, and live dinner music. Each guest is warmly greeted, seated and served a warm, healthy meal by volunteer servers in black aprons with name badges.

By the end of this year, Sister Jeanette, the Table of Plenty volunteers, and community partners which include Senior Coastsiders, JobTRAIN, No Strings Attached, Abundant Grace, Potrero Nuevo Farm, Pasta Moon, Sisters of Notre Dame, Its ITALIA, First National Bank NorCal, HMB Chamber of Commerce, and the students and faculty of the Sr. Dorothy Stang Center at Notre Dame de Namur University, will have served over 44,000 meals to people in need.

Sister Jeanette joins an illustrious group of past recipients for the Service Above Self Award. Past recipients include Mike Serdy, Coastside Adult Day Health Center volunteer, Ruth Rafello, American Association of American Women volunteer, Judy Macias, Village of the Coastside founder; Dr. Michael Klass, the volunteer Administrative Coordinator of the San Mateo County Coastside Medical Reserve Corps; Judy O’Leary, Director of Coastside Hope; Eric and Alice DeBode, Kelly Avenue Catholic Worker organization; and Sue Heckman, Coastside Adult Day Health Center.

The award was presented and the four finalists were honored at the Magic of the Coastside at the IDES Hall on June 2nd. This event is the Rotary Club Foundation’s biggest fundraiser of the year and featured the Killer Dueling Pianos, shrimp boil dinner, and a silent auction. The major beneficiaries of this year’s event are Abundant Grace Coastside Worker for homeless programs, Coastside Childrens’ Programs for early math learning training, and Senior Coastsiders for Meals on Wheels.

The Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay is one of 34,000 clubs around the world. Rotary International’s signature cause is the eradication of polio, and the end is in sight with just three countries in the world with endemic cases. The Half Moon Bay Club meets each Thursday for lunch at the Portuguese Center at 724 Kelly Street in downtown Half Moon Bay.

Contact Mary Corcoran, Public Relations, at mcorcoranhmb@gmail.com or 650-218-0436.