Littleton Hometown Volunteer Heroes

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Littleton Hometown Volunteer Heroes

It takes a lot to make a small town community run effectively and stay looking pristine at the same time. And here at GoLittleton.com we'd like to pay tribute to some of the Hometown Volunteer Heroes who selflessly donate their precious time, skills, and energy to help keep Littleton going, looking beautiful, and truly being a great place to live!

GoLittleton's Honored Volunteer Heroes:

• Violet and Raymond Hopkins: passionate volunteers in the community for over three decades both individually and as a couple.
• Dave Harkless: two decades of volunteer work
• Chad Stearns: A lifetime of voluntering around Littleton
• John C. Pilgrim: 40-plus years of volunteerism
• Lucy Magoon: 30-plus years of dedication to the Littleton Garden Club

Hometown Volunteer Hero: Lucy Magoon

By Missy Pilgrim

Lucy Magoon's 30-plus years of dedication to the Littleton Garden Club has kept Littleton looking beautiful and festive throughout all 4 seasons as well as all the major holidays for over 3 decades. And GoLittleton.com would like to highlight her many wonderful accomplishments while donating her time to always helping to keep Littleton both decorated and in full bloom.

Born and raised in Vershire, Vermont, Lucy then graduated from Morse Business College in Hartford, Connecticut. She got married and spent 40 years in Cromwell, Connecticut raising 3 children (Paul, Linda and Jim) while also working for 20 of those years at the Rocky Hill Veterans Home and Hospital before retiring and moving up to Whitefield, New Hampshire in 1978 with her husband Russ and their 17 beautiful Morgan's. They moved to Littleton in 1989, downsizing to only 7 horses by then. But even before becoming an actual resident of Littleton, Lucy was already an active member of the Littleton Garden Club after joining it in 1982. In her 33 (and still counting) years as a member, Lucy has served 7 years as Corresponding Secretary, 1 year as Second Vice-President, and served 2, 2-year terms as President (in 1991-1993 and 1995-1997).

Barbara Hill Memorial Garden

The Littleton Garden Club is responsible for many of the beautiful gardens, tubs, and window box displays located throughout town. You can often see Lucy, known as "the lady who tends the gardens," planting, pruning, and maintaining these places and fixtures early in the morning starting at 5:00 AM and working tirelessly, often 7 days a week, to be sure each one stays looking pristine. And all of this effort would be sure to please the Littleton Garden Club's founder, Anna Pennock, since her motto for the club has been to "make Littleton rare with gardens fair" since 1938. And that's just what the club has done, especially once it was federated into the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs a month after it was founded, which in turn led to it being inducted into the National Garden Clubs so it was able to get grants. Lucy has helped the club receive $3,500.00 in grants since 1995 through the Shell Oil Company and the Principal Financial Group.

Places the Littleton Garden Club routinely maintain are done by either beautification through the club itself or these special grants. The places done by beautification are the Community House (including the 24 Arborvitae shrubs added in 2003 - 2004), the Library, the Post Office, the Littleton Information Booth, the Dunkin' Donuts Parking Lot (which is dedicated to the Oklahoma City bombing victims), the Veterans' Memorial Bridge, and the center median across from the Beal House Inn. The places that have been done by grants are the landscaping around Remick Park's Bandstand (in 1995), the Opera House Victorian Butterfly Garden (in 1999 - 2001), the Rita McAvoy Bird Habitat Memorial Garden (in 2001 - 2003), and the Littleton Veterans' "Let Freedom Ring Memorial Garden" in the Bank of New Hampshire Plaza (in 2005 - 2007). For all the grant-funded projects, Clint Clough provided the labor as well as matching funds, helping Lucy and the rest of the garden club volunteers create and maintain truly fantastic results.

Ameican Legion Flagpole Garden

Along with making sure Littleton stays pretty and decorated, the garden club members also use their expertise of gardening to help teach younger residents of the community about this enjoyable hobby. Lucy herself has worked with all of the Littleton Boy and Girl Scout troops, teaching them how to plant bulbs. She's worked with many Littleton High School students who were earning their 50 hours of community service volunteer credits needed for graduation, teaching them general garden maintenance and flower arranging. She's mentored special needs individuals, teaching them flower arranging for the Littleton Library. And she's helped with the garden club's annual involvement of 2 important community programs: 1) the "Smokey the Bear-Woodsey the Owl Poster Contest" for fire prevention for elementary-aged students, and 2) scholarships that are given out for teens to be able to attend the New Hampshire 4-H's Barry Conservation Camp in Berlin, N.H.

Over the past 3 decades, Lucy has routinely donated 600 hours a year (and often as much as 1,000 hours in some years) to the Littleton Garden Club, which has resulted in her receiving many prestigious awards including the Civilian of the Year Award in 2000 and the Community Star Award in 2012. As a member of the Littleton Ladies Auxiliary VFW, Post 816, Lucy's volunteer hours are credited to them. This enables the VFW to also get volunteer service awards.

Lucy has created wonderful scrapbooks documenting the Littleton Garden Club activities that have colorful accompanying photos of their gardens, window boxes, and arrangements. Some of these scrapbooks are kept at the Littleton Historical Society for the public to view and are valued historical records of our town's beautification development over the years.

Besides still being active in the Littleton Garden Club, since 2013 Lucy has also been a volunteer at the reception desk at the Littleton Regional Hospital. There she assists people with their questions and takes reservations for the popular "Monday Night Meals for Seniors" program.

Thank you, Lucy Magoon, for helping to keep Littleton going and such a great place to live!

Want to nominate someone who deserves to be in the Hometown Volunteer Hero Spotlight?

Contact Us stating the person to be considered, a brief list of the volunteer work he or she has done for the town of Littleton, and your contact information. Thank you for helping us to honor their accomplishments!

Littleton Regional Healthcare Appreciates the many volunteers in our Community. Here's what LRH Employees have to say about their Work at LRH:

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• Town of Littleton
• Littleton Area TV - Channel 2
• Chamber of Commerce
• Historical Society
• Littleton Rotary Club

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