This year’s Mother of the Year Rosie Award goes to Ellen Shane, a woman who took a mother’s worst nightmare— the death of a child—and turned it into activism that protects all children.
Shane was nominated by her 20-yearold daughter Leigh, who said, “My mother, Ellen Shane, deserves the Malibu Rosie Award because of her inspiring strength, her everpresent smile, and her complete and utter selflessness.”
Ellen’s daughter, and Leigh’s sister, Emily, was fatally struck by an out-of-control motorist in 2010 as she walked along Pacific Coast Highway. The tragic experience shook the family as well as the community, but Ellen decided to do something about it.
“When Emily was killed, my mother could have retreated… she could have laid in bed, wasting the rest of her life, overcome by grief; instead she started a foundation,” Leigh wrote. “When everything fell apart, and my little sister died, my mother was still standing there, holding my hand and whispering in my ear, ‘we will overcome this.’”
“She got up every morning with a purpose, fighting to move on, fighting to reclaim her life and happiness. As a kid, you want to believe your parents are superheroes, that they have the answers to all the questions in life, that they know the right choice from the wrong and which road you should really be walking on.
“When you grow up, you realize that they are just people trying to do the best they can, the same as everyone else. But my mother is still my superhero. She overcame so much right before my eyes, and is truly the most inspiring person I have ever met.”
The Rosie Award was named for the mother of Arnold York, the publisher of The Malibu Times. In calls for nominations, the paper receives dozens of letters praising Malibu moms. Recurring themes include selflessness, volunteerism, inspiration, and admiration for their mothers’ ability to keep home life running while juggling all the details of everyday existence.
After Emily’s death, Shane plunged into efforts to find something positive to come out of her loss. The Emily Shane Foundation and its SEA (Successful Educational Achievement) Program were designed to “pass it forward,” developing mentoring programs to help struggling students who might not have the means to pay for educational support.
She has doggedly supported civic efforts to make PCH a safer throughway.
“The sad truth is that there have been too many deaths on PCH since Emily was killed,” Shane said Sunday in a telephone interview. “We are a tight-knit community and our big mandate is to change things to make our children safer.”
The SEA program has helped her heal. She pairs up current university students or recent graduates with struggling students to develop organizational and study skills. It has been a successful venture on several levels.
“The kids who work in the SEA program have to pass it forward,” Shane said. “They all have to do a good deed and it is wonderful to see.”
Shane gives a lot of credit to her own mother, Dorothy Bierbrier, for her motherly instincts, saying, “She was one of those moms who always put her kids before herself.”
As Mother of the Year, Shane will receive gifts including dinner for two at the Sage Room restaurant, two bottles of wine and a wine tasting for two at Malibu family wines, two tickets to the Nederlander Theatre, a complete scrapbook kit from At the Blue Barn, one pilates session from Diana Nicholson at Malibu Integrative Health and a bottle of reserve cabernet from Malibu Solstice.
“I forgot that Leigh was going to write something,” Shane said. “This is such a wonderful surprise.”
Many local moms had similar experiences. Leticia Aloi, wrote about her mother, Patricia Aloi, detailing how she has cared for her father and brother through devastating illnesses.
“She is constantly on the road taking both of them to appointments,” Aloi wrote. “She manages to keep the house in order. And all the while keeps her commitment to volunteer once a week at a local hospital… I call her ‘Superwoman.’”
Alexa Darin wrote of her mom, Audrey Darin, “She is the most giving, compassionate, loving, well rounded, hysterical and kind person I know, and for that I am so grateful.”
Fifth-grader Serena Perl wrote of her mother, Soniya, “My mom has so many balls to juggle and still takes care of us, when she could have put us in the YMCA camp.”
And young Elizabeth Boland wrote of her mother, Vanessa, “She supports me in my dream.”
Rosie Award honorable mentions also go to Justine Petretti, who was nominated by her 11-year-old daughter Tea; Mae Chandran, nominated by Sashee, Prakash and Bala Chandran; and Krishna Jaret, nominated by nine-year-old Harmony Jaret.