Hay River (Sep 11/06) - A year after the Hay River Soup Kitchen opened in 1996, a volunteer asked Laura Rose if she would help out for just a day, and she agreed.

Then she was asked to help one day a week.

"A year later, I was president and I haven't been able to shake that yet," Rose joked.

More seriously, she credits God with inspiring her to undertake the task of feeding the hungry.

"The Lord asked me to do it and I'm doing it," she said, adding she was inspired with a vision and a direction. "He told me to lay out the banquet table and show them God's love and not just tell them."

Rose, 56, was not even deterred from that mission when she was punched in the face by a crack cocaine addict. She regularly deals with all sorts of problems, including the occasional drunk.

"It doesn't bother me," she said. "I'm not afraid of them."

The people she helps know she cares about them, she added.

The Soup Kitchen operates out of an old highways camp trailer, where Rose volunteers six days a week.

"I put in full-time hours, at least 40 hours a week."

Rose is also known for hosting three programs on Hay River's community radio station CKHR.

Each Sunday for the last seven years, she has presented a show of gospel music and readings from The Bible and other Christian literature.

Over the last several years, she has also presented a program of country music and another featuring the music of the 1930s, '40s and '50s for seniors.

In all, she is on air six hours a week.

"That's my fun stuff," she said. "I like doing it."

Rose first came to the Hay River area from Calgary with her parents in 1969 when she was a teenager. Her parents are Ben and Fran Greenfield, pioneers of the Paradise Valley farming area about 20 km south of downtown.

"It was nice and quiet because there was almost nobody living down there," Rose recalled, adding it took time to adjust to the laid-back Northern life.

She has spent much of her life as a homemaker. She and her husband Paul raised four children, including two who were adopted.

She also had various other jobs - a kitchen worker at a hospital, a housekeeper, a special needs assistant at a school and an assistant manager at a store.