Lynne Rubin interviewed me for the online “Leaders’ Spotlight” feature, and this was reprinted in LLL of Arizona’s SUNSHINE.
Ed, Kathy (pregnant with Monty), and Sam
Being a La Leche League Leader takes a lot of time and dedication. We all have it; it’s why we do what we do. Imagine, however, the amount of time and dedication it takes to remain active with the organization when you’ve moved 16 times in 26 years! Kathy Grossman has.
Now the New Leader Secretary of LLL Utah, Leader Support for LLL USWest Area Network, and the Managing Editor of Leaven, Kathy has had many jobs with LLL over the years at the local and Area level since becoming accredited as a Leader in 1985. Though the nature of Kathy’s involvement changed with the upheaval of each move, her continuation with La Leche League was always “a given” as far as Kathy was concerned. Sometimes Kathy would call ahead to the new Area to set up contacts, and sometimes she would arrive in a new place and wait until she and her family felt fully settled before jumping in to her local Group.
But Kathy says she always saw LLL “as a part of my life that I needed to make time for.” And make time she did. “Every move has its own signature,” Kathy tells me. “Each place is so special and unique; there’s always a person waiting to be my best friend.” She goes on to say that there’s always an LLL Group so grateful to get a co-Leader or a place that really needs a Group to be started.
Having two brothers and three sons, Kathy says the sisterhood of LLL is what drew her to the organization. Kathy loves being involved with other women, both as a mentor and a mentee. The sense of connection Kathy knew she would find becoming involved with LLL in each new location kept her sane, she says. She also admits, “I’ve never been involved with anything I felt so appreciated. That’s hard to give up.”
Aside from her work with local Groups and moms, Kathy’s jobs with LLL have included mainly writing and editing. In addition to her work with Leaven, some of her jobs have included Area Leaders’ Letter Administrator (ALLA), Publications Coordinator for USWest, and Editor for the USWest publication Connections. She also was the cartoonist for Leaven for ten years and hopes to someday compile the 60 “Slice of LLLie” cartoons she’s accumulated into a book. As you can see, she’s found a real niche writing and working with writers. An English major with a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in communication, Kathy feels it’s important to La Leche League and to our culture at large, to encourage people to write about all of the interesting things they are doing.
As we spoke on the phone, Kathy said she is already gearing up for her seventeenth move. She’ll be moving to a small town in Utah where there is currently no LLL Group. Now at 63, Kathy admits she’s going to have to really consider whether she’s up for starting a whole new Group in a whole new place. Her love of writing and literature will keep her active with Leaven in her new home, but as for the rest, Kathy’s going to give it some time and see how she feels when she gets there before she determines her next move at the local level.
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