Our Laguna: Woman's Club honors Woman of the Year

Anne Wood's answering machine message ends with "Do something nice for someone." She lives by those words.

A day rarely goes by that Wood isn't doing something nice for someone — often more-than-one someone. Wood is the consummate worker bee. Her business card reads "Volunteer."

Wood's mostly unsung contributions to the community were recognized at a luncheon June 1 when the Laguna Beach Woman's Club honored her as the 2012 Woman of the Year.

"Too often, people who spend most of their lives helping others are not given the recognition due them," said Sande St. John, who knows a bit about volunteering. "That is why it is so heartening to see Anne Wood truly appreciated by those who know her and love her."

"So what has she done for the community since moving to Laguna in 1969?"

"She drives around in that silly little car of hers looking for fires. She is a member of the Laguna Beach Exchange Club and hasn't missed a Memorial Day or Labor Day Pancake Breakfast since the firefighters started flipping flapjacks."

"When no one else shows up, she is there."

"She is a member of the Exchange Club, which meets weekly."

And what else?

Wood volunteered with the Chamber of Commerce for 15 years, often daily. She answered the phone, greeted visitors and updated the chamber's annual Community Directory, of great help to Bobbi Cox, founder of the Leadership Luncheon.

"I would go through her list to come up with names for invitations to the luncheon," Cox said. Wood has served on the Patriot's Day Parade Committee for more than a decade — waving entries out of the staging area at the Laguna Beach Unified School District parking lot.

She worked tirelessly in the aftermath of the 1993 fire, teaming up with Marsha Bode, the 2004 Woman of the Year.

"We got a (Federal Emergency Management Agency) grant to help folks and we opened a center," Bode said. "Anne's was the first face people saw. She always had a smile and that made a big difference to people going through a stressful time. People remembered that."

Wood continued to volunteer her time when the center evolved into the Laguna Beach Relief and Resource Center.

"She is super loyal, always funny and always willing to help," Bode said.

Wood has given her heart and soul, not to mention time, to the Neighborhood Congregational Church.