SALEM — When newly arrived immigrants from Puerto Rico showed up at his family's doorstep, Justino Arroyo offered a helping hand.
"I remember our house always full of folks ... just starting out," said Lucy Corchado, Arroyo's daughter. "He would give them room and board basically."
Corchado said she has been inspired by her late father, a farm worker from Puerto Rico with a limited education who became a leader in The Point, a poor and largely Latino neighborhood near Salem's downtown.
Next week, Corchado will be honored for her own long record of community service when she receives the 15th annual Giving Tree Award.
The annual Salem Public School honor recognizes the good work of both an adult and student. It will be presented Tuesday at the Salem High School honors assembly. The student winner will be announced that evening.
For Corchado, a 43-year-old mother of three, this is the latest in a series of honors.
A few weeks ago, Corchado, a staff assistant at Salem State University, was inducted into the college's Civic Engagement Hall of Fame. Citing a "deep commitment to her Salem community," Salem State recognized her work with the Latin-American Festival of the North Shore and the city's No Place for Hate Committee.
Last year, Corchado was one of two recipients of Salem State's Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award.
The lifetime Salem resident has been an activist since her teen years when she joined neighbors to picket slumlords. The former two-term city councilor is currently president of The Point Neighborhood Association.
In addition to serving on a number of boards and committees, Corchado has translated city fliers and brochures for Spanish-speaking residents.
She is a founding member of the new Salem Community Charter School, a program for high school dropouts that will open in September.
She also is the choir director at Immaculate Conception Church, where years ago her father helped start the first Hispanic Mass.
She also credited her mother, Crispina, who has provided the support over the years to make all her volunteer work possible.
Corchado kidded that she is active in so many groups and causes because her phone never stops ringing and she never stops answering.
"I don't know what it is," she said, "but I'm kind of a magnet."
Corchado recognizes, however, that she represents a neighborhood whose voice needs to be heard.
"I think what motivates me," she said, "is just the need that exists."
