Our Staff
Beau Saccoccia, Site Director
Beau Saccoccia is a native of Pass Christian who grew up in the area and made his confirmation at St. Rose de Lima in 1998. In December 2005, Beau returned to the Gulf Coast to do Katrina Relief Work in East Biloxi with the organization Hands On USA. In February 2006, he moved into a tent behind St. Rose to help a community closer to home. Since his arrival, Beau has worked on a variety of tasks from gutting houses to coordinating volunteers. Among his current responsibilities, the most important is remembering to feed and walk his dog, Sara.
Nicole Pulkkinen: Construction Manager
Nicole Pulkkinen came down to the Gulf Coast from Columbus, Ohio in December 2006. In Ohio, she taught emotionally disturbed children and coached girls' high school basketball. Before becoming an AmeriCorps volunteer and serving as a team leader at SOAR for almost a year and then working as the construction manager since November 2007, she taught severe emotionally disturbed children and coached girls' high school basketball. She holds an undergraduate degree in Educational Psychology from Miami University in Ohio. Her best buddy in Bay St. Louis is Chance, her black lab.
After her two terms of service with AmeriCorps end in mid-July, she plans on moving to New Orleans to teach Jr. High math. Although she's experienced great success as the SOAR construction manager, she said, "My heart has always been in teaching."
Denys Salas: Community Liaison, Kitchen Manager and Case Manager
Denys Salas (AKA Dee) was born in Salinas, Ecuador and immigrated to Massachusetts in 1998 to attend the University of Massachusetts. She earned a BA in Sociology in 2005 and thought she was headed for the Peace Corps. But Katrina changed those plans. Instead, she signed up with AmeriCorps-National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) because she wanted to serve in the country that had become her second home. NCCC sent her to California, where she trained as a team leader and recruited minorities. By August 2006 she arrived in Bay St. Louis to volunteer with St. Rose de Lima Church, where she helped to build homes in the community, After serving three terms as a team leader with AmeriCorps in various programs, she was offered a staff position with SOAR.
In the fall of 2008, she'll move on to Mozambique, where she'll serve with the Peace Corps doing AIDS and HIV education.
Elaine Maxion: Case Manager
Elaine Maxion was born in New Orleans and spent much of her free time as a child in the Bay-Waveland area. She moved to San Francisco as a teen and lived there most of her adult life. Family ties and wanting to be part of the area's recovery brought her back to the Gulf Coast in February 2007. She served with AmeriCorps Hands-On Gulf Coast for nine months as SOAR's case manager and signed on for another year as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. She loves living and working at the St. Augustine Retreat Center in Bay St. Louis.
Molly Dugan: Volunteer Coordinator
Molly Dugan was raised in Naples, Florida and is a recent graduate of Elon University in North Carolina with a degrees in Sports Management and Business. Elon's emphasis on service learning prompted her to take a trip with 40 other students to Bay St. Louis in October 2005 to help with recovery efforts. Little did she know that this decision would change the course of her life. Falling in love with folks in the Bay, she returned to help eight more times with family members, friends, classmates and professors before her college graduation in 2007. In August 2007, she moved to Bay St. Louis and joined AmeriCorps. She spent her first four months doing construction work and then transitioned into doing the volunteer coordinating as well.
Project Leaders:
Back from L to R: Jeb Baldwin, Scott Kuhn, Mark Deubert, Becca Rich, Molly Dugan, Joe Tofti, Sam Fletcher. Front: Patrick Sullivan and Michelle Frederick (Not pictured: Bill McIntyre)
