As a volunteer, Ann Cambra has used her financial expertise to help everyone from South Coast seniors struggling with tax preparation to Africans searching for clean water and an education.

The Rochester resident’s local efforts earned her the 2015 AARP Andrus Award for Community Service. The award, which came with a $1,500 donation to the charity of Ann’s choice, will further the work of Mission to Liberia, a nonprofit she and her husband Michael founded.

Ann said Mission to Liberia will use the funds to construct a well that will serve 800 people in Liberia.

“Ann’s dreams produce positive impacts in Massachusetts and – without exaggeration – the world,” said Nancy Munson, the CEO of Bristol Elder Services in Fall River.

On Sept. 10, more than 40 people attended the award ceremony held in the Rochester Senior Center. Members of the state’s AARP Executive Council were present for the event, as were family, friends and those Ann has helped in her four years as a volunteer in the Senior Center.

The couple moved to Rochester in 1978 from New Bedford.

While many dread tax time, those who work alongside Ann said she puts seniors at ease with her work in the AARP Tax-Aide program at the Fairhaven and Rochester Councils on Aging.

“When she started volunteer training in 2011 I knew immediately she was going to be someone special,” said Peter Robash, district coordinator for AARP’s South Coast Tax-Aide program. “By the end of the session she was helping other students learn the program. Any time we need help she willingly puts in the extra effort.”

In addition to the tax program, Ann helps seniors craft personal budgets for the Coastline Elderly Services Money Management Program in New Bedford.

Mission to Liberia Chair Ann Fournier, who has known the Cambras for 40 years, explained the group’s mission and how the money will benefit those in need.

“We diligently try to provide clean water for villages in Liberia, and we have provided educational materials for schools, and when I say educational materials that includes chairs for students to sit on,” said Fournier.

Not one to crave the spotlight, Ann said winning the prize was “an absolute shock.” The praise heaped on her initially made her uncomfortable, but as the event went on it started to feel like “everyone in the room was family.”

“By the time it was my turn to talk, there wasn’t much to say,” Ann said.

Ann and Michael are grateful for the $1,500 and the opportunity to spread awareness for Mission to Liberia.

Founded in 2005, the charity started when the couple met Joseph Deranamie, a missionary in the U.S. on a visa.

Deranamie, who was born in Grand Bassa County, Liberia, needed a way to send clothes back to his home country, which was devastated by two civil wars, one from 1989 to 1996 and another from 1999 to 2003.

At the time, the couple was in the shipping business. Working together Ann handled finances while Michael focused on logistics.

The Cambras agreed to donate a 40-foot shipping container provided Deranamie filled it with donated goods. He did, and to make sure the goods reached those in need the Cambras purchased a plane ticket for Deranamie so he could distribute them.

Soon after, the Cambras retired from shipping and turned their attention on Mission to Liberia, which became a nonprofit in 2007.

Since then, the group has dug wells, donated millions of dollars worth of medical and educational textbooks and built schools in Liberia.

The couple had big ambitions in the beginning.

“When we started out we said we were going to change the entire country,” Michael said.

“Now, we take it one project at a time,” Ann said. “Baby steps is our motto.”

There are two people from the group in Liberia to oversee current projects and develop new projects. Michael has visited the country a total of four times.

Stateside, the couple is proud of the work that Michael has done with area schools.

A former teacher at Rochester Memorial School, he promotes service learning projects in middle schools that connect U.S. kids with Liberian children.

After visiting Wood Elementary School in Fairhaven to promote the charity, Michael said students raised $3,600 for the Hope of Life School.

“Young kids have a lot of empathy and they want to help, especially after hearing that some children are growing up without clean water, electricity or a chance to learn,” Michael said.

For more information on Mission to Liberia visit www.missiontoliberia.org or the group’s Facebook page.