'Social Entrepreneur' Puts Her Faith into Action in Gilbert

credit: The Guardian

When Sharon Kotsonas moved from Puerto Rico to Gilbert, Ariz., 20 years ago, she didn't think much of the culture.

"I was 19 when I moved," she tells the Gilbert Independent.

"And then from there I moved to the States, and I got married very young.

I had children very young, and life wasn't all that kind to me at that time."

But after 12 years in Mississippi, where her husband was from, she "learned to love everything about it," she says.

"Southern food is delicious and just that spirit of community is very beautiful there."

Kotsonas, who has a 23-year-old son and a 9-year-old daughter, says she learned how to be a mom and a wife while in the US, and she's been there ever since.

"There's a total cultural shift," she says.

"It doesn't matter if they had a hurricane or if they had a tropical storm.

The sun always comes up or comes out.

The food, the people, the music, everything."

After moving to Arizona, she started her nonprofit, Weekly Collective Volunteers, to provide support for people in economic adversity, physical and mental health challenges, or other obstacles.

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