Community Volunteer Awards

2022 Honoree

Kathy Hiramoto Chlubna &
Aminie Elseberry

We Could Not Have Done it Without You

Kathy Hiramoto Chlubna & Aminie Elseberry

The world is divided into two groups: the people who watch things happen and the people who make things happen.

That second group is where you find Kathy Hiramoto Chlubna and Aminie Elseberry, volunteers extraordinaire.

Friends since the seventh grade, this team of Rancho Cordova all stars has been working behind the scenes for decades to make it fun for the rest of us – and they like it that way.

Kathy and Aminie say that way back in their Mills Middle School days, the band was the force that brought them together as they sat side-by-side in the woodwinds section. Friendship blossomed. When they moved on to Cordova High, they landed together on the Student Council where a lifetime of making things happen for others began.

This pair of friends has traveled through life as only you do with your oldest and dearest. Kathy got married and went on to a 30-year career as a speech pathologist, including 20 years as a special day class teacher. 

Aminie worked for the California Secretary of State as a Cloud Architect, and also worked for Michael’s as a custom framing manager. 

As busy people, it is not like they were looking for something to do. Rather, they were looking for a way to help. And so they do.

They have been behind the scenes at Cordova High School class reunions. They are the trusted duo at the California Capital Airshow, Kids Day in the Park, the Rancho Cordova Sports Hall of Fame and giant Rancho Cordova Fourth of July where they manage onsite ticket sales for the 25,000 people who show up for fun and fireworks.

They are among the architects of the Cordova Lancers, Leaders and Legends MACH mentoring program at Cordova High, giving back to the same high school that prepared them for life.

Their volunteer adventures have been filled with memorable episodes, and they revel in watching the hilarity that can result when you mix thousands of people with well-meaning volunteers. They were part of the immense growth of the Rancho Cordova Fourth of July recalling the year it was so hot and so busy that Kathy nearly passed out at the front gate after skipping dinner to help manage the crowds.

Still, they say working in the Fourth of July admissions gates is their favorite volunteer activity – greeting people, but no mingling! They prefer to be behind the scenes, thank you.

This dynamic duo said they volunteer because it gets them out of the house and they enjoy seeing the fruits of their labor. They said it’s fun, it’s rewarding and it helps the

community. Spending time with their bestie is implied.

“You get cool t-shirts and sometimes food” – they quipped.

Kathy and Aminie are great examples of community volunteers of the very best kind. Honest and capable, and utterly unflappable, their many years of pitching in have helped shape their community. You will find them operating where the rubber meets the road -- just so that other people and their families can enjoy themselves.

We could go on forever about the details of all this, and in the end, it really would not do you justice. So, let’s just put it this way:

Thank you, Kathy and Aminie – BFFs to each other – and thank goodness, to all of us, too.

We Couldn’t Have Done it Without You.