Of all the places across the country, Lois Murray chose to retire here in Middletown. Since then, she's had a huge impact on the community and is this week's "Making Middletown Marvelous" nominee. Thanks to Lois and all our volunteers.
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CONTACT: Matt Sheley at (401) 842-6543 or msheley@middletownri.com
“MAKING MIDDLETOWN MARVELOUS” — LOIS MURRAY
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (MAY 23, 2022) – When she retired years back, Lois Murray had a chance to live in many different parts of the country.
But she chose Middletown — specifically.
Since she’s been here, Murray has been busy helping improve the community, whether it’s her work with the Rotary Club of Middletown, Friends of the Middletown Public Library and beyond.
Through those efforts, Murray has been making a huge difference in the community for good, whether it’s beautifying the town, trying to bring literature to all and similar work,
earning her this week’s “Making Middletown Marvelous” kudos.
“I have had the opportunity to live in many parts of the country and Aquidneck Island is the best place to be,” Murray said. “When I retired, I chose to come here for cousins, climate, ocean, proximity to theater, mountains, and most of all nice people.”
When nominating her for the recognition, Middletown Public Library Director Theresa Coish described Murray as a “dynamo” who has given countless hours to the town.
Coish said at the library, Murray has been a Friends bookstore volunteer since 2008 and held many offices on the Friends Board: membership chair, secretary, vice-president, president, and now treasurer, along with being the bookstore manager since 2017.
During that time, Coish said Murray has planned the annual meeting, secured speakers, held raffles, art sales, book sales, secured furniture, interacted with book donors, managed an offsite storage unit, sorted thousands of books and now manages the Friends budget.
Coish said Murray also joined the Rotary Club in 2008 and has served as president, secretary, and treasurer. She is currently the President of the Middletown Rotary Charitable Foundation.
“Lois says that the library bookstore is a fun place to volunteer because she meets nice, interesting people, interacts with a fantastic library staff and enjoys being a useful member of our community,” Coish said. “We’re really very fortunate she’s so involved and without people like Lois and our other volunteers, we wouldn’t be close to the organization we are today.”
Murray said she’s impressed with all the work the Rotary Club does, whether that’s planting daffodils outside the Aquidneck Corporate Park to an ongoing project to bring clean water to Cambodia on the other side of the globe.
“Middletown Rotary started a clean water project in Cambodia in the 2000’s and has been directed the past several years by Robert Aldrich who is my hero,” Murray said. “Due to his direction and those helping him, 28,000 bio-sand filters have been installed, wells have been refurbished, household latrines installed and school latrines have been installed — just to name a few of the things that have been done for a very needy nation.”
At the library, Murray said she’s particularly proud of the work to make the library more accessible to all.
“My interest in the Friends of the Middletown Library started when I moved here,” Murray said. “At that time, the Friends bookstore had been open six months and was to take the place of the annual book sale. The store is now open 32 hours a week staffed by volunteers. You asked who I admire in Middletown — it is the volunteers who give countless hours of their time to make books available to everyone in Middletown.”
Document Link: https://www.middletownri.com/DocumentCenter/View/4815/Making-Middletown-Marvelous-Lois-Murray-
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To suggest your “Making Middletown Marvelous” nominee, visit https://mdl.town/Marvelous online and submit a form and photo and the the Town will take care of the rest.