Kate’s Corner: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Stories

Kim Mahoney has a lot on her plate. As a full-time employee at Mass. General Hospital in the  In-terventional Radiology Department, the mother of two young boys still manages to carve out time to commit to her town, and it all stems from her ability to seek out and jump on fulfilling opportu-nities. When an opportunity arose to serve the town as an election worker last year, Mahoney didn’t think twice.

“I felt like this was something that I could do because the time commitment was really just the elec-tion days and a short training session,” said Mahoney, who credits the experienced workers in precinct four for showing her the ropes. “The election days themselves are very long, but the work is so important. Access to voting is easy to take for granted.  As a voter, getting in and out of the polls quickly and easily is important and I think that ease encourages participation in the political process. That’s where election workers come in. We try to be as efficient as possible while paying attention to detail.  We do everything we can to ensure that every person has an opportunity to vote when and where they are supposed to. I encourage anyone who is curious about being an election worker to reach out.”

It’s hard to believe that Mahoney has a spare second for anything else in life, but she is dedicated to her role as a hands-on parent and is an assistant coach to her son’s tee ball team.

“I was fortunate to work with other, more experienced coaches, and also fortunate to have such a fun group of kids on the team,” said Mahoney, who grew up in Bellingham, where she has fond memories of her grandfather coaching her own softball team. “I was always short on talent but long on enthusiasm and loved learning the importance of team over self. It was very rewarding to see the kids grow their skills between the first and last games of the season, but even more reward-ing was to see them cheer one another on.”

Mahoney credits her full life to her husband Matt, who was born and raised in Winthrop.

“Life is very full these days and none of us can do it all on our own. I am able to be involved be-cause I have the support of an incredible partner in my husband Matt, who is also involved here in town, having just finished coaching his first season of youth soccer. They say it takes a village and we are fortunate to have that here in Winthrop between friends, neighbors, and my in-laws who you can find doing an occasional school pickup or trip to the library with the children.  One of the things I have come to appreciate most here in Winthrop is that sense of community. I know that I can always rely on a neighbor or fellow parent at the playground to come through for us when we need something.”