When it comes to helping others, Peg Coulter can’t say “no.”

“They say I never say ‘no’ when I’m asked to help,” Coulter said. “That’s pretty much true. I can’t help myself. I just enjoy helping others.”

For her years of volunteer work in the community, the Kane Chamber of Commerce has selected Coulter as this year’s “Citizen-of-the-Year.” She will be honored Saturday at a banquet at Kane Country Club.

Shirley James, the Chamber's Businessperson-of-the-Year, also will be honored at the fete, which begins at 6 p.m.

A former U.S. Army nurse, Coulter has been an active volunteer for the Relay For Life cancer benefit, the Chamber of Commerce, Friends Memorial Library in Kane and the Kane Depot Preservation Society. She served on the board for the former Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Kane. She also served on the first United Way board in Kane.

A past president of the Ladies Auxiliary at Kane Community Hospital, Coulter still serves as an elder with the Presbyterian Church of Kane. She has been an active member of the Kane Food Pantry since 1985. She holds a seat on the board for the McKean County Housing and Redevelopment Authority in Smethport.

For several years, Coulter served as a volunteer for Hospice, which assists terminally ill patients.

“I relieved care-givers and even stayed overnight sometimes,” she said in recalling her Hospice work. There again, she was asked to help and she responded.

“Volunteering is what makes the world go ‘round,” Coulter said with a cheerful smile.

Coulter was born in Sunbury, the younger of two daughters of the late Helen and Harry Hoffman. Most people don't know that her given name is Carolyn Shaner Hoffman.

"I've been called 'Peggy' since the day I was born," Coulter said.

“My sister, Shirley had a baby doll named ‘Peggy,’” Coulter explained. “She thought I was her baby doll and called me ‘Peggy.’”

After graduating from Sunbury High School in 1940, Coulter entered nursing school at the Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia. She graduated as a registered nurse in 1944. After briefly working as a nurse at the Cornell Medical Center, Coulter entered the U.S. Army Nurse Corps as a second lieutenant in 1945.

She was stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in the same hospital where casualties were treated after the Japanese bombing on Dec. 7, 1941.

Coulter underwent training for a planned invasion of Japan and boarded a Navy hospital ship bound for Okinawa. The ship—the USS Repose—was lost at sea for a time after being hit by a typhoon in the Pacific Ocean.

After duty in Okinawa, Coulter went to Tokyo with the first U.S. occupation troops. That’s where she met her husband, William Coulter. He was serving as a hospital administrator at the time.

“He was trying to boss me,” Coulter joked. “But I was promoted to first lieutenant before he was.”

“I bossed him the rest of his life.” Coulter said with a grin.

After the war ended, her husband returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh and studied at the University of Pittsburgh. The couple married in 1947 in Sunbury. After her husband graduated from the Temple University Dental School in 1952, the couple moved to Kane. Dr. Coulter practiced dentistry in Kane for 36 years. He died in 2002.

The Coulters have three children—a daughter, Candis in California, a son William “Skip” who teaches in Laos and a daughter, Susan, who resides in Kane.

Kane’s Citizen-of-the-Year has three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In addition to her many years of volunteer service in the Kane area, Coulter joined her husband when he volunteered to practice dentistry in Third World countries. For a month every year for 10 years, Dr. Coulter served needy families under the Rotary International program. Because of her assistance, Rotary honored Peg Coulter with the Paul Harris Fellowship Award. She is the only non-Rotarian in Kane to ever receive Rotary’s highest honor.

Coulter, who once was queen of Kane’s “Ragweed Days” festival, said she tries to “back everything I can in Kane.” She still attends high school and middle school basketball games and most often drives her own car to the events.

 “I have a little trouble getting up the steps in the bleachers,” she admitted.

Coulter’s favorite time of the week is with her “girls fellowship coffee club.” The women meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Arlington Hotel on Fraley Street.

“We have our own table and everyone has their own seat,” Coulter said. Some of the women in the group have been meeting for morning coffee since their children were in elementary school.

“We’re always there for each other,” Coulter said. “It’s the most valuable part of my day.”

Coulter is showing no signs of slowing down even though she is 85 years old.

“I sleep well because I stay busy all day long,” she said.

She enjoys painting with oils and spent the long winter writing a book she calls “The Journey Matters.”

What’s her biggest accomplishment in life?

“I haven’t done it yet,” Coulter said with a broad smile.