Community sponsors couple who gives all

The Rossis are at risk to lose their home

SCOTTS VALLEY >> Ed and Mari Rossi were raised by parents who preached generosity. That’s why, when Ed was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Hodgkin’s lymphoma last month and the couple’s world imploded, they were originally against friend Joanne Purdy Guzman creating a GoFundMe page.

“I’m a giver, not a taker, I can’t help it,” Mari Rossi told the Sentinel. “Now is the time to accept the help… it won’t be forever.”

Because of their new situation, the Rossis are at risk of losing the little home they’ve rented for the last four years. The lease is paid up through February, but between caring for her husband and her 94-year-old mother, Mari Rossi doesn’t know how she’ll pay the bills.

“It’s 44k a year, so they started that GoFundMe so we could stay in the house while he had his chemo and went through all the surgeries,” she said. “If I didn’t have to move Edward somewhere else it would sure be a lot easier.”

So far, the campaign has raised more than $9,000 of the $45,000 goal.

“(The Rossis) have not only contributed to so many causes here in Scotts Valley but in all of Santa Cruz County and beyond,” Purdy Guzman said. “Right now, the two people who are always helping other people need some help from all of us.”

The GoFundMe page highlights just some of the ways that the Rossis used the financial successes of their respective companies to support Scotts Valley residents through acts such as funding a big fireworks show, offering up money for library services and paying for weekly groceries for strangers through Nob Hill.

“Like the ( basketball) coach John Wooden said, ‘ You can’t live a perfect day unless you give something to someone who will never be able to repay you,’ ” Mari Rossi said. “Those are words I’ve always lived by.”

Mari Rossi’s passion is education; her favorite work has been setting up an account to pay for breakfast and lunch for kids in need and putting another floor on the Rebele Family Shelter for those families who don’t have a social worker to help them.