Meet the East Sider who rallies her St. Paul neighbors to help those in need

Not much can derail LeeAnn Larson and her mission to make life better for people on St. Paul's East Side.

A bout with COVID-19 two years ago came close, causing residual lung damage and continued immune system issues. But Larson — largely through her East Side Community Page & Neighbors on Facebook — has managed to keep on helping those neighbors who need it.

Eye On St. Paul recently persuaded Larson to share a little of her story, even though she says raising money or giving away diapers or adopting families for Christmas is a group effort.

This interview was edited for length.

Q: When did you start the Facebook page?

A: Five years ago.

Q: What made you start doing it?

We used to have "missions." Every month, we would either pick a small local business, we would help a teenager or a community member who needed something or we would help a local nonprofit. We did a socks drive for the Salvation Army, we did Walking With a Purpose — he provides food and items to the homeless. We raised $3,000 for Borchert's Meat Market. They were really struggling; they've been robbed a few times and they don't have a lot of people because they've had road construction out there.

What we did was if you went out to Borchert's and you made a purchase, you would email me the receipt, then you would earn a sticker. And we would have a post where people would put all of their stickers. That's what we did with all the missions, if you did what you were supposed to do, and then we would draw for a gifting. Usually local businesses donate gift cards to me, and at the end of the month, we would draw winners. We have to call it gifting … not a drawing. That's considered gambling.

Q: Why did you start doing this?

A: It all began 12 years ago. There was a lady who didn't have Christmas gifts. And she didn't know what to do. I was admin of a page that was huge, like 30,000 people. And I was like, "I know we can get some gifts for your kids." So we started what I called an East Side Christmas. It's a program that went from that one family and, last year, we adopted over 700 kids.

I said, "You know what, I want to do a community page. And I don't want it just to be Christmas. I want to be able to help people in the community. I want to bring people together."

My daughter, they were doing Christmas wish lists at school, my daughter was like, "Oh, I just want my mom to have furniture." And her teacher was: "What?!" And literally, like two weeks later, I had a knock on my door and there was a semi truck and 40 people outside my house and they furnished my entire house.

That was my kick-start.

Q: What year was that?

A: That must have been 2007. My daughter was in third grade. I wasn't able to start right away. I was in a situation where I had to get myself stable. But I always told her, "I'm going to pay this back."

Q: You raise money sometimes, right? And sometimes you get things for people.

Q: How do you decide? Is there a board or a committee?

A: No. It's me. I'm not a nonprofit. I really don't want to be. This way we can pick and choose. Whoever comes in and I have time to invest into it, I'll be: "Sure, let's throw it out there and see if anybody can help."

Q: So sometimes you help people make connections, and sometimes you help?

A: A lot of times, people get connected. The times we collect all this money, it's just a small percentage of what happens behind the scenes. I have a list of amazing people who say, "If you have anybody, just connect them with me."

Q: Do you vet them at all?

Q: How much have you given away over the years?

A: Oh my goodness. I don't even know. Maybe like $15,000 a year. That's not including the Christmas page.

Q: How long do you think you're going to keep doing it?