Between Carol and Brad Farnham, Nahida Sherman and Connie Boyd, the Monadnock Community Hospital volunteers have collectively netted over 22,000 volunteer hours.
For the Farnhams, service has been a lifelong endeavor. The couple, who just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary, first started volunteering at MCH in 2005 after moving to New Hampshire from California.
Before that, Brad served in Germany with the U.S. Army from 1957 to 1959. He then moved to a career working as a mainframe operator in Los Angeles.
According to Carol, the couple met while they were at school learning their respective jobs.
When Brad retired, he started volunteering at a local hospital in Los Angeles, Calif., as a tram driver.
When Carol retired in 2004, a combination of family factors and Brad’s love of fall foliage brought the couple to the east coast.
“Brad spent the first year continuing as a tram driver for the hospital,” Carol said. “While the California tram was a nine seat bus, the one here was a golf cart and most people preferred to walk.”
“I ended up in materials management instead,” Brad added. “I enjoyed it more.”
While Brad volunteered five days a week for nearly 15 years doing materials management, Carol took to data processing and manning the hospital’s window shop.
“I worked in data processing and then spent 24 years as a personal payroll clerk before retiring,” Carol said. The behind the scenes inventory paperwork suited her well.
Brad, who has accumulated over 10,000 volunteer hours, still commits three hours every Tuesday and Friday, while Carol, who has accrued over 3,000 hours, works for three hours every Monday.
In 1962, Sherman, a French native, immigrated to the United States at age 21 in search of greener pastures.
“Almost 64 years later, the grass is still greener,” she said.
Sherman, also a veteran, enlisted in the Air Force in 1968 and served stints overseas in Thailand during the Vietnam War. An Intelligence Analyst by trade, she has an affinity for numbers and spreadsheets.
In 1992, after retiring with 24 years of military service, 20 of which she called “good,” Sherman transitioned to executive secretarial work using her analytical skills working for a business in Keene. When she retired again in 2001, she decided she needed to stay busy.
“Growing up, my mother always volunteered,” she said. “When I fully retired I thought ‘now I’m not doing anything,’ so I decided to volunteer.”
Since 2001, Sherman has accrued aver 4,300 volunteer hours with the hospital. She volunteers every Monday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. “Sometimes I come in other days to take care of little things.”
Over the 25 year period, she has helped the finance department and edited publications for the community relations and philanthropy department.
She has also handled administrative duties for the window shop as well as computer data entry for facilities engineering.
She emphasized that she enjoys the hospital tremendously. “They not only care about the volunteers, but the community too.”
Boyd, an MCH volunteer since 2008, got a similar start. After working 30 years as Harrisville’s town librarian and as secretary for its select board, she needed a way to stay busy in retirement.
“I had a lot of time on my hands and needed something to do,” the Manchester native said.
She first started volunteering as an assistant for a 97-year-old Broadway prop master named Lester in 2007.
“He needed a helper to get his groceries; I remember him as a nice gentleman,” Boyd said.
Then in 2008, she saw an MCH ad requesting volunteers.
“I continued helping Lester, but also started helping with clerical duties at the hospital.”
Since then, Boyd has served in various volunteer roles, including clerical duties, infection control data entry and window shop attendant.
In that time, Boyd has accrued over 5,000 hours volunteering. Every Wednesday afternoon, she helms the window shop cash register for almost three hours.
All four volunteers shared similar sentiments about their service and what it means to them.
“I love being with the people here, laughing and joking,” Brad said.
“I agree, I too love interacting with the people,” Carol added. “But I also enjoy the data entry work, it keeps me busy.”
“All the volunteers at the window shop are delightful and fun to work with,” Sherman noted. “It’s such a wonderful atmosphere.”
“I love it here,” said Boyd. “The people I work with and the ones that come in, they’re very interesting.”