The Peterborough Select Board has approved a recommendation by the Recreation Department to name the newly refurbished gym at the Peterborough Community Center in honor of the late Isabelle Miller.
Miller, a longtime Peterborough resident, left a trust for the town to support the creation of new programming at the Recreation Department.
The Isabelle F. Miller Fund, which is administered by the NH Charitable Foundation, was established through Miller’s estate in January 2002 to benefit a handful of Peterborough area organizations, including the Peterborough Recreation Department. The funds cannot be used for maintenance or regular operations and can only be put toward projects that will support expanded programming.
The Isabelle F. Miller Scholarship Fund was established at that same time to benefit students graduating from ConVal Regional High School.
Recreation Department director Craig Fraley said the department receives about $21,000 in income from the Isabelle Miller Trust each year.
Fraley said that following the most recent renovations to the building, the department was “looking around for something to name in Isabelle Miller’s honor.”
“We have funded about $200,000 in projects with funds from this trust,” he said. “Most of the playing fields and facilities in town are named after men, so we thought, why not the Isabelle Miller Gym? Her legacy has made a great impact for the people of Peterborough.”
The first item purchased with funds from the Isabelle F. Miller Fund was used to purchase the department’s minibus in 2004.
“We named it ‘Izzy,’ after Isabelle Miller,” Fraley said.
Funds from the Miller Trust were used for previous renovations to the Community Center, including to the kitchen and community room.
Select Board member Bonnie Tucker noted that Miller was “not a woman of great means.”
“From what I have heard, she was very careful, and very generous. Most people don’t know about this trust,” Tucker said. “I don’t think anyone else has created an endowment for the Recreation Department.”
The Select Board suggested the gym be named “Isabelle Miller Gym” rather than Miller Gym to avoid confusion with Barbara Miller Way, at the entrance to the Grove Street municipal parking lot, which was named in honor of former Select Board member Barbara Miller in 2019.