Volunteer remembered for giving back

CLOVIS — Patricia Bazar lived her life constantly in search of ways to give back to her community and improve the lives of others, according to those who knew her.

Bazar, director of United Way of Eastern New Mexico's 2-1-1 program, died Sunday morning.

She was 45.

UWENM Executive Director Erinn Burch said Bazar was an illustrious volunteer, who was constantly giving of herself.

Bazar volunteered with organizations as eclectic as the Lighthouse Mission, the Curry County Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis and the Clovis and Portales Ministerial Alliances, in addition to her primary work at UWENM.

2-1-1, a hotline intended to connect residents with resources, such as food and housing assistance, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2017 — in no small part due to Bazar, Burch said.

"If you just look back at everything that's come out of 2-1-1 in the last decade, it's because of her. Because she's volunteered for so many years with so many organizations, she knows the families that are hurting. She knows who people are, and because of all the organizations she's been involved with, she knows so many people," she said.

Burch said Bazar's giving spirit carried over to her day-to-day interactions.

"She loved to celebrate the children in her family, and she did that all over the community, as well. If she loved you, you knew it, and the way you knew it was that what you were working on — what was important to you — became important to her," she said.

Curry County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ernie Kos recalled a person who lived a volunteer's life.

"At the 2016 chamber banquet, she received the award for ambassador of the year. She was just a huge volunteer for the chamber. She recently played a key role in the very successful membership drive that we had last year," Kos said. "For several years, she would take a vacation from her job at United Way to help us with the Clovis Music Festival. She was definitely a community leader that touched a lot of lives."

Clovis Civic Center General Manager Misty Bertrand marveled at Bazar's appetite for life and her ability to infect others with it.

"To Patricia, everything was beautiful. Every day was a beautiful day, and she really did have this spirit and this light and this aura to her that drew people to her," she said, "and you wanted to be around her, because being around her was having a beautiful day."

Bertrand shared a story about a student that Patricia had connected with through the United Way.

"This young boy, who was having issues in his life, had connected with Patricia, and was turning his life around, so much that Marshall Middle School awarded him the 'student of the week' award; they weren't able to get hold of his parents, but they knew Patricia was working with him, and they called Patricia," Bertrand said.

"This student, who was having issues in his life and his parents aren't really there for him, had Patricia to turn to, and she came to the banquet and took him out to eat that night. That was just the type of person she was. She went out of her way to do amazing things for people who at one point were strangers, but after talking to her, became her nephews and her friends and her family."