February 23, 2022

Volunteer/Donor Profile: Shirley Richardson

Shirley Richardson is well known in Wolfeboro for her volunteerism and leadership skills.

“I was recently told, ‘you cannot say no to Shirley,’” she said, laughing. “People say, ‘She asks, and you cannot say no to her.’”

Shirley credits her active and community-minded parents for ingraining in her at a young age a passion for community volunteerism.

Her volunteerism reached the agency when she served on the Board of Directors for The VNA & Hospice of Southern Carroll County. During her board term, Shirley and her late husband, Bob, visited Cape Cod to attend a ceremony to remember her parents, hosted by a local hospice organization. She felt so moved by the experience, when she returned to New Hampshire, Shirley suggested that the agency hold its own ceremony like the one she and Bob attended on the Cape.

The agency and board agreed and established their own event, Tree of Memories, in 1995 to honor loved ones who had died and to celebrate hospice services. The tradition continued when the agency merged with Community Health & Hospice in 2010 to form Central New Hampshire VNA & Hospice. Shirley has served as event committee chairperson since the event’s inception.

Every December for the past 25 years, hundreds of hand-made ceramic doves bearing the names of loved ones who have died have been placed on evergreen trees in multiple locations throughout the Lakes Region. With the merger of Central NH VNA & Hospice and Concord Regional VNA in
April 2021 to form Granite VNA, the Tree of Memories tradition was combined with Concord Regional VNA’s Hospice Lights of Life tradition and renamed “Lights, Life and Memories.”

“I never think things are a lot of work - I just do it,” Shirley said when asked about community volunteerism. “Bob was the same way. Some people moan and groan at the things they have to do. We just pitched in and did it. We felt people were appreciative and happy to have it.”

Shirley has also served as the committee chairperson for the agency’s annual Home & Garden Tour held each summer in Wolfeboro – a highly successful event which has resulted in thousands of dollars in donations to benefit hospice services in the Lakes Region.

In addition to volunteering her time and talents to the agency, Shirley has served as the chairperson of the Book Tent at the Huggins Hospital Street Fair, vice president of programming on the Wolfeboro Friends of Music Board of Directors and is a member of the Wolfeboro Garden Club and the Hikers’ organization. She taught Sunday School at the First Congregational Church in Wolfeboro for many years, served as president of the Wolfeboro Co-operative Nursery School and Kindergarten, where she started the first Ski & Skate Swap, and served as co-president of Carpenter School. It is not an exaggeration to say the list goes on and on.

For all that she has given – and continues to give – to the community, Shirley was honored with the Wolfeboro Lions Club’s Citizen of the Year Award in 2016.

It takes a team to ensure that Granite VNA can continue to provide care to the state’s most vulnerable residents. The agency is fortunate and grateful to have volunteers and donors like Shirley.