Carolin Harris
Carolin Harris has been feeding Point Pleasant for 37 years, whether they can afford anything on the Harris Steakhouse menu or not. Originally, she bought the restaurant-one of the town's remaining original eateries-to take afternoons off to care for her ailing mother. Soon she began seeing the hunger every day, and had to do something about it. "I couldn't go home and feed my family when customers had nothing to eat. They became my family, too, you know," she says. "They come to me for everything. I have too big of a heart to say no. My niece says, 'Do you ever say no?' I say, 'I can't say no.'"
Every Christmas Eve she opens her doors, serving food, and hope, to those with nowhere else to go. "I have to cook for my family on Christmas anyhow, so I may as well get started," she says. Sixtythree- year-old Carolin does not see this as anything special; it's something she does every day in one form or another. Though how many of us actually stop to feed another?
Some days five people in a row ask to put food on credit, which makes Carolin worry how they will make it without her. She spends most of her waking hours in the restaurant. "One of the hardest things I'll do is retire and not see my people. When I get Mason County back to how it was when I was younger, then I'll retire. I can't stand to go home and sit."
Harris Steakhouse is the local "information center." Even the police send people to Carolin, because she knows everything that happens in her hometown. She is very active with tourism events and the Main Street board. She co-founded the Mothman festival three years ago, serves concessions at most local events and volunteers for many others.
Money is not something Carolin ever had, or ever wanted. It doesn't buy what's important to her-family and friends. She is rich enough already, and she has many more mouths to feed.
