ITHACA,N.Y.(WENY)-- Ana Ortiz, founder of No More Tears/ No Mas Lagrimas was chosen to be the Laura Holmberg Awardee by the Community Foundation of Tompkins County. 

This award was established in 2006 by Anna Holmberg in remembrance of her mother who was a local attorney and activist here in Tompkins County. The Laura Holmberg award recognizes unsung heroes throughout the Ithaca community; typically women who have volunteered in the community for many years and often work behind the scenes. 

Ortiz has spent over ten years doing community outreach here in Tompkins County ranging from helping victims of domestic abuse to providing free food and clothes to residents in need. 

Janet Cotraccia, Chief Impact Officer at the Community Foundation of Tompkins County said Ortiz was chosen for this award because she is deeply trusted in the community and she is very good at building resources around people in need. 

“ People are comfortable reaching out to her and she mobilizes support quickly and resourcefully,” said Cotraccia. 

Ortiz had moved to New York from Puerto Rico when she was a teenager and has been organizing events to celebrate the Latino community ever since. Before Ortiz could even fully speak English she was helping women in her neighborhood and cooking Latin dishes for the community. 

During Ortiz’s life, she dealt with her own domestic violence situation and during this time she had nowhere to turn for help so she decided she would make sure no one around here would be without help ever again. 

“When I was in my domestic violence situation there was no help and I tried to find a place that I could count on,” said Ortiz. “ One day I was crying and crying and I just said I'm done, I say hey I don't have too much, come to my house, have some coffee, some food feel free to come.” 

No Mas Lagrimas was started by Ortiz in response to the struggle she was seeing throughout the Ithaca community and Cortaccia said she has started doing even more work since the pandemic began. 

“ She has grown her team and is leveraging her long-standing relationships with Friendship Donation Network and across other community organizations to lead weekly food and household supply distributions,” said Cotraccia. 

Ortiz does all of this outreach while still taking care of four kids and Cortaccia said this is extremely inspiring and needed during a time like this. 

“While this is a challenging time, Ana reminds us of the importance of taking care of one another, of kindness and how nurturing a homemade meal can be,” said Cotraccia.

Ortiz was celebrated at the Community Foundation of Tompkins County’s Annual Women’s Fund Virtual Celebration.