Moorestown Service Clubs Name 2017 Citizen Of The Year

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Kahra Buss is Moorestown’s 2017 Citizen of the Year. Buss, a 1988 graduate of Moorestown High School, was selected to receive the honor by the Service Clubs of Moorestown.

She will be honored on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. Tickets are $55 and will be available at the Moorestown Community House in January.

Buss had moved away, but later returned to Moorestown with her husband of 22 years, Joe Buss. Returning home to their roots and their families was important to both of them as they prepared to raise a family.

Raised with a foundation in service, Kahra Buss and her family have spent many years volunteering and serving on various Boards and Committees professionally and civically.

She graduated from Bucknell University in 1992 with a degree in International Relations.

Kahra Buss’ career in non-profit administration has evolved and spanned the public and private sectors for nearly 20 years.

Proud wife of Joe, mother of Anna, Grace and Abigail, Kahra Buss enjoys connecting with people and her community and is grateful for the support she receives from her family.

She and her daughters founded Live Civilly in the spring of 2009. Her daughters became aware that homelessness and hunger happens every day, in their town, in their community and all over the world, but they also began to understand that homelessness and hunger are merely symptoms of greater social problems.

To address the symptom of hunger, Kahra Buss and her family began to raise food by conducting independent food drives.

After two very successful food drives, they decided they needed to continue their efforts through fundraising and get more people involved. They created the Live Civilly campaign. Using Grace’s favorite drawing subject, her Little Man, they created the slogan “live civilly.”

As CEO and President of Live Civilly, Kahra Buss has accepted the challenge by the founders of Live Civilly, her children, to help provide solutions to the growing crises of homelessness and hunger.

Her professional background in non-profit administration and academic training in Third World Development has provided a foundation for this challenge. She and Joe have listened to the conversations and ideas of their children to develop a model by which live civilly seeks to empower young people to become actively engaged in their own success by asking, not only “Why?” but also “Why not?”

Since 2009, this organization has provided more than 130,000 meals through the Live Civilly/Moorestown Ministerium Food Pantry at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, over 1,500 hours of academic assistance through the Moorestown Public School District and over 7,000 hours of youth service hours through Homework Help, Garden and Nutrition, July 4th Parade clean-up, Moorestown Day and many others.

In addition to her work with live civilly, Kahra Buss has also established a program to enable youth ages K-8 to support Habitat for Humanity projects in non-critical roles, such as clean-up.

The attached image of Kahra Buss and her family was provided by the Moorestown Service Clubs.