After years of involvement in the Federal Way community, Shelley Puariea said it makes her feel good to help people out, and despite never having lived in Federal Way, through her work, she’s helped out the community where she can for over 20 years.

Puariea, the executive director of the Federal Way Senior Center, 4016 South 352nd St., Auburn, was born on April 29, 1948, on the South Side of Chicago in the South Shore neighborhood, where she lived until she left to attend Indiana University. Puariea said that growing up in Chicago’s South Side in the 1950s was very nice.

She and her siblings would ride their bikes everywhere, going to the theatre, Rainbow Beach Park, and often making their way downtown, where her father was part of the family camera shop business. Puariea said to this day, she and other graduates of Horace Mann Elementary try to support the school and students through buying supplies for teachers.

Puariea said her life was fairly normal growing up, but when her father died when she was about 13 years old, her life changed. Puariea said that looking back, it was really strange, but she and her older brother lived on their own in South Shore from about age 14 until she graduated from high school, because her mom moved to Indiana. Puariea said, just like her work with the Federal Way Boys and Girls Club and now the Federal Way Senior Center, she had to make things happen and got through it.

At Indiana University, she earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and recreation in 1970. Puariea said back then, there weren’t many women’s sports, but she was a cheerleader in high school, and her physical education teacher motivated her to pursue a physical education degree. Her teacher really helped her figure out what she was going to do in life because she was on her own, and to this day, she wishes she could thank her.

Puariea said when she was in college, she helped organize women’s intramural sports, but when she finished her time at Indiana University, she got hired as the first women’s athletics director at Northwestern University in Chicago. At the same time she was working, she also earned a master’s in education at Northwestern University.

Puariea said that at Northwestern University, she started all of the women’s recreational, select and varsity athletic programs for women. She managed and supervised the women’s basketball, soccer, volleyball, field hockey and golf programs. She said at the university, she also helped initiate the building of an athletic facility for women.

However, before she attended Northwestern University, she spent the summer after earning her bachelor’s degree traveling in Europe, where she met her husband.

“I ended up at a youth hostel in Amsterdam, and I met my husband there,” Puariea said. “He said he was from Washington, so I thought he meant D.C., but it was Puyallup.”

After she earned her master’s, she and her husband moved to the Seattle area because he had family in Washington. Puariea said she eventually began working with the King County Boys and Girls Club, where she served as program director and executive director at various locations.

Puariea said the same way she began girls’ sports programs at Northwestern, she started girls’ sports programs at the Boys and Girls Club. She said at the time, there were no girls’ sports programs and the organization was called the Boys Club of America.

Puariea said she bounced around different Boys and Girls Clubs until 2002, when she landed at the Federal Way Boys and Girls Club.

“EX3, I built that. That was the first teen center for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and I was able to get funding from the Gates Foundation and everybody to build that first teen center,” Puariea said. “And actually, that model is all over now.”

Puariea said she enjoyed working at the Boys and Girls Clubs because it felt good to help kids find something positive. At the time that many kids were getting into negative things, she believes that having distractions at the EX3 teen center and sports programs helped kids who might not have had good home lives.

Eventually she left the Boys and Girls Club, and then in 2015, the opportunity came to work part-time as the executive director of the Federal Way Senior Center. Puariea said she saw through her work with youth that it was a lot easier to raise money for youth, but it was difficult to raise money for seniors, so she wanted to help out. At the time, there were talks of closing the Federal Way Senior Center, but she thought she could help things get better, and she has been there since.

Puariea said that since she joined the Federal Way Senior Center, they’ve really revamped and grown the food bank, expanded the community garden, and started consistent twice-a-week senior lunches, among other things. Puariea said the food bank has become a great help to many seniors and families in general. In July, they had 461 people from Federal Way receive food and 403 people from other cities.

Puariea said that many seniors will tell them the Federal Way Senior Center is a good place for them to have social time through the lunches, bingo and getting to know others. They have mostly been getting enough food to go around, but the Federal Way Senior Center doesn’t get a lot of donations, so they really have to watch their dollars.

Despite the job’s tough parts, such as managing funds and other managerial duties with a limited staff, the work is rewarding, she said. When she can, she acts as a resource, with many seniors asking her for help, and she tries her best because she enjoys helping people.

Puariea said, despite not living in Federal Way, she’s spent a lot of time in the community, and her favorite activities include going to the Twin Lakes Golf and Country Club, the mall and Steel Lake. She said her favorite restaurant is Mama Stortini’s.