Rose Trifoni Mazzuchelli is Woman of the Year

There are those who exude goodness, and Veteran’s Services Officer Rose Trifoni Mazzuchelli is one of those people. She attributes this to the way she was raised in the North End and Revere.

For many years, she’s been helping veterans, not just from Winthrop, but also from Billerica and East Boston and around. She is one of 30 female Veterans Services Officer in the Commonwealth, a rare breed that is growing said Mazzuchelli.

Mazzuchelli served in the Army from 1979 – 2000 in active duty and reserves, multiple deployments. As a military police officer, Mazzuchelli soon was appointed a special agent.

In 2013 she was hired as the town’s first female veterans services officer

When she is not working with a veteran Mazzuchelli is a teacher with Hallmark Health teaching first aid, CPR. She teaches the same privately and also for the town, most notably for the coaches in the Parks and Recreation Department. She also used to be in the catering business but gave it up this year. Over at St. John’s you will find her teaching in the Genesis program, religious education for special needs.

“It is so rewarding,” Mazzuchelli  said. “We have kids who are non-verbal and by the end of the year they are saying simple prayers.”

She also runs a food bank, shuttles her mom to appointments, she’s on the executive board veterans services officers association, she also travels for public speaking events in other communities, and recently had an opportunity to speak in front of a physicians group about the role of a VSO. She also mentors upcoming VSOs.

The Italian culture that runs through her runs through her family too. Her daughter Lauren helps with the Veterans Food Bank and her 21-year-old son Paulie helps in the office.

Mazzuchelli, 57, is married to David. She is mother to six children, four of her own and two that she took in – she’s actually had a lot of young people find their way to her house, friends or acquaintances, all needing the extra support that Mazzuchelli has to give. Some stay for months, others years.

“My house was always the house kids came to, because I would cook, I never knew how many people were going to be at my dinner table every night,” she said.

She is a traditional Italian cook. “I always had an extra few pounds of pasta so there was enough. That’s how my house was growing up too,” she said.

“My house was like that growing up,” she said about her home near St. Anthony’s. “We always had food, and anybody could come over to the house. We were always a warm family.”

She lived around a lot of family, uncles, grandparents saying, “You could never have a secret in an Italian family, everybody would know in three minutes,” she said.