Native New Mexican Tenchie Overcash is the smiling face of the American Cancer Society in Northern New Mexico.

Born Hortencia Rico in Lordsburg 70 years ago, Overcash has been has been the ACS's quality-of-life manager for the northern part of the state for eight years. She says it's a part-time job, but her daily schedule doesn't sound like it.

Besides staffing the ACS office at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center five mornings a week, she takes work home and monitors both an answering machine and office e-mail. Plus, she often travels to various communities north of Santa Fe for events and to recruit and train volunteers.

In fact, all her colleagues in Northern New Mexico are volunteers, and Overcash is a cancer survivor herself.

She came to ACS by a circuitous route. Overcash earned a bachelor's degree in education from Western New Mexico University in Silver City, where she met her husband, Charlie. She then spent almost 14 years teaching in Las Cruces and Bloomfield. After moving to Santa Fe in 1975, Overcash taught second grade at St. Francis Cathedral School until 1980 when she joined the State Department of Labor in the job training division.

"I was the liaison between the department and the Navajo Nation and helped negotiate contracts between the two," Overcash said. "It was a privilege and a pleasure to work with the Navajos on behalf of the state."

Overcash developed breast cancer toward the end of her 20-year work with the state. She has been cancer-free almost 15 years. Research brought her to the American Cancer Society and, upon her retirement from the state in 2000, she began volunteering for the organization.

"I wanted to volunteer after I retired, to give something back for all the support I had received during my illness," Overcash said. "Then, I saw an ad for the part-time job as quality-of-life manager for Northern New Mexico. I thought it would be good for both me and the ACS; fortunately, they agreed, and I've been doing the job since."

The ACS office, which is near the hospital's cancer wing on the lower level, is open from 9 a.m.-noon Monday through Friday. Overcash spends most mornings there, although her goal is to have the office open all day Monday through Friday, staffed by volunteers. This would free her to spend more time "on the road," informing Northern New Mexicans about ACS's services (all of which are free), establishing satellite offices in northern communities and recruiting and training volunteers to staff those offices.

Among the programs and services offered in Santa Fe are a once-a-month group, Look Good ... Feel Better, during which participants meet with a state-certified cosmetologist to learn about makeup and skin-care techniques to combat the effects of chemotherapy and radiation. Another program, Reach to Recovery, offers one-on-one support by trained counselors.

Still another program, Road to Recovery, provides cancer patients transportation to doctor appointments and cancer treatments. Charlie Overcash is a regular volunteer driver, among his other volunteer efforts in the community.

The ACS also has been effective in securing free or discount lodging in Santa Fe for patients and their families who must come to the capital city for treatment.

A visitor to the ACS office will find a variety gift items for cancer patients and survivors, including personal items such as wigs, hats, turbans, scarves, pocket bras and breast form prosthetics. All are free and have been donated or purchased by grants.

In fact, Overcash noted, all the services and support systems are free to the public in need of such efforts. ACS raises money through the Relay for Life program, annual runs in Santa Fe, Taos, Los Alamos, Chama, Raton and Las Vegas, N.M.

Overcash has more than 20 volunteers, including the cosmetologists, counselors, drivers and administrative/office staffers. She's always on the lookout for helpful people who, like her, want to give back to the community.

For more information about the ACS program in Santa Fe and how to volunteer, donate money and/or items for the gift program or participate in the services offered, call Overcash at 946-3095 or 473-0280 or e-mail tenchie.overcash@cancer.org.

For information about the national organization, call 800-227-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.