E24: Pam Costa - Local Charity Fundraising Champion

This week's guest is Pam Costa and experienced and successful fundraiser in the San Pedro community, a Leadership Director at POLAHS and wife of current Honorary Mayor title holder, Domenic Costa. Today's episode is the ultimate female inspired episode in honor of women's history month.

In the intro of this episode I take the time to acknowledge a few women that were on the cover of the San Pedro Today magazine in honor of Women's History Month. Though twenty women were highlighted in the feature article, I specifically wanted to shout out the women who have been guests on the podcast. This amazing group of women include Angela Romero (episode 1 & 15), Cindy Bradley (episode 8), Stacy Jackson (episode 19), Julie Bender (episode 4) and last but not least, Mandy Barton (episode 20). I am honored to have these women on the podcast and proud that of the work they are doing in the community.

I also take a moment to speak about the progress women have made in society, but share an incident that happened to me personally in the the local San Pedro facebook group that exemplifies why we still have a long way to go. In the process I shout out a couple of amazing guys, Joshua Stecker, Editor of the San Pedro Magazine, for highlighting these amazing women in the community on the cover of the magazine , and Steve Casares, admin of the SP facebook group, who stepped in and supported me in my experience on the group page.

In this episode I interview the only female candidate in this year's race for Honorary Mayor. Pam grew up in San Pedro, attending Mary Star elementary and high school. Her first experience fundraising in San Pedro was during her run for Mary Star Fiesta Queen when she was in high school. Since then she has continued to raise money for local events and charities within our community.

Pam on raising money locally :

"'It's hard. It's hard work. But people coming out of every corner just wanting to help has been overwhelming to me... its incredible." - Pam Costa

This is the third Honorary Mayor campaign that she's been a part of and her first time as a candidate herself. For her husband's campaign two years ago she was instrumental in raising over $50,000, which was the most that had been raised until that point. She's hoping to beat her previous record.

Pam on her fundraising passion:

" I've always wanted to give back and embrace certain charities that have been important to me." -Pam Costa

She talks about other women that have inspired her and the charities that motivated her in her decision to run for Honorary Mayor. She is speaks highly of the San Pedro community and hopes to see more activities and entertainment venues to come in the downtown area. We aspiringly speak about what it'd be like to have a major venue in San Pedro that could potentially attract huge talents.

Pam Costa is raising money for Maria's Closet, Pedro Pet Pals and Port of Los Angeles High School.

LINKS:

Pam Costa's campaign facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Pam-Mama-Bear-Costa-for-San-Pedro-Honorary-Mayor-1155389651276732/

Pam for Honorary Mayor on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/costa4spmayor/

Maria's Closet https://www.mariasclosets.org/

Pedro Pet Pals https://pedropetpals.com/contact/

POLAHS https://www.polahs.net/