Alberto Honored With Life Improved Honorable Mention

Lisa Alberto with Program Manager
Brady Dullea

RENSSELAER FALLS - When one of the residents at the Rensselaer Falls IRA mentioned to Lisa Alberto that the walls in their kitchen were kind of bare, Ms. Alberto took it upon herself to make the kitchen more homey.

When a resident of the Rensselaer Falls IRA is celebrating their birthday, Ms. Alberto, who works as a cook at the house will make them a birthday, but not just a plain cake, often she will make a cake personalized to that person's special day.

For these reasons and more, Ms. Alberto was recently selected as an honorable mention Life Improved Award recipient.

"Lisa is extremely effective in her position," wrote Program Manager Brady Dullea. " She is a very skilled chef, she is organized, efficient, and she is very proficient in utilizing benefit cards to their maximum potential.  These things alone make her a valuable member of the team, but more than these things, Lisa truly cares about making life better for the people she serves."

Referencing her efforts to make homes kitchen truly feel like home, Mr. Dullea wrote, "When a program member mentioned that the walls of the kitchen didn't have a lot of decoration, Lisa came up with an idea for a hand prints display, she then helped everyone living at the IRA to complete one and add it to the wall."

Personalized birthday cakes though are a specialty of Ms. Alberto's and past efforts have included a butterfly cake and even a three-dimensional frog cake.

"These cakes make their day feel that much more special," he wrote, adding the residents aren't the only beneficiary of her caring persona.

 "Even on the days she doesn't work she usually has much of the prep work of meals for that day done," he said. "She consistently goes above and beyond and truly has providing the best life possible to those at United Helpers as her number one priority."