Because of Judie Kosisko helping out her community on a daily basis, Monarch is a town where everybody knows her name.
"Everybody knows Judie," says Kosisko.
Kosisko has been the secretary for the Monarch Volunteer Fire Department for five years, making her in charge of hall rentals, fund-raisers and always seeking grant money to better the fire hall and the community.
Her contributions to the community outside of her duties as the fire hall secretary includes starting the Monarch Crime Watch eight years ago for the "little problems" the community once experienced.
Janie Patchin has known Kosisko for 25 years and joined the Crime Watch a few years back when she and her husband, Tom, observed a "creepy" looking man wondering around their house, which is in a secluded in the area.
"I felt uncomfortable," said Patchin, who called Kosisko to let her know what happened.
"If anything happens," says Kosisko, "they (people in the Crime Watch) call me and I call the state police."
Kosisko told Patchin to come to the Crime Watch meeting to report what she saw and to get the word out.
Patchin says she now feels comfortable as people in the "close-knit community" are looking out for one another.
Kosisko is still involved with the Crime Watch that meets every four months and has 35 members including Patchin, who says that Kosisko reports on everything happening in the community by sometimes going through pages of information.
The Crime Watch members aren't the only ones calling Kosisko's phone as she's considered to be a second mother to the fire department and a pillar to the community.
Kosisko's phone is always ringing to the point where she laughs and says, "sometimes I need a secretary!"
Kosisko says she receives phones call from people who need favors to people experience some kind of problem and just want to talk.
"They know they can count on me," says Kosisko.
Not only is Marie Lowman Kosisko's neighbor, she's also a relative and says Kosisko has visited the house to help take care of her husband, who's been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and can't walk.
"She Watches out for everybody," says Lowman, who's also involved with Kosisko in the ladies auxiliary and the Crime Watch for the community.
"Everybody Watches each other," says Lowman. "We're always constantly helping each other."
Kosisko's neighbor, Ed Pieczynski, has known Kosisko for 10 years and credits her for helping him put names to the faces of his neighbors when he was new to the community.
"She's a pretty handy lady," says Pieczynski, who adds that if anyone has either a medical problem, a marriage problem, in need of some kind of advice or "anything," they call Kosisko.
"She'll help anybody," says Pieczynski. "I don't care who they are."
"When someone asks for help, she never says 'no,'" says Kosisko's granddaughter, Julianne Speeney, who also nominated Kosisko.
Along with helping out at her church, St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Connellsville, she also has been instrumental in putting up speed-limit signs and signs to Watch children.
"There's signs all up and around here," says Kosisko's husband, John.
Kosisko says that Monarch is a nice place with nice people and "I want to keep the place nice."
When she's not doing everything else, Kosisko can be found in the kitchen, baking by herself or with her grandchildren for the fire hall or just people in the neighborhood.
"She does a lot of cooking," says Pieczynski.
Kosisko is always there for families of those who pass away, collecting flowers or doing whatever she can for the family.
The multitasking in which Kosisko is involved comes from the way she was raised as her mother and father and her aunt were the same way in the community.
"She is there for the whole community of Monarch all the time," says Speeney. "She's one of a kind when it comes to helping others."
"Different people help out with different things," says Kosisko, who's not doing what she's doing for the recognition, but does it because that's what she wants to do.
"It keeps me going," says Kosisko. "I don't know the meaning of the word bored."
Kosisko must know the meaning of the word care when it comes to the community and to her grandchildren. As Speeney puts it, "She is always there for me to brighten up my day like a guardian angel."
