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When Fenwick Road resident Gloria Legvold helped create the Civic Leadership Award, she had no idea that one day she’d be the recipient.
The Winchester League of Women Voters (WLWV) issues the award each year, with this year’s going to Legvold.
“Gloria has provided a tremendous service to our community over many years through her work with multiple Winchester organizations, including the Winchester Unitarian Society Social Action and Outreach Committee and the Winchester Network for Social Justice (formerly, Winchester Multicultural Network), in addition to decades with the League,” WLWV stated in a recent statement. “She is wonderfully collaborative, civic minded, and enthusiastic and has been a generous leader and mentor who has given her time to many organizations in Winchester. We look forward to celebrating Gloria and hope that members of the public will join us on Sept. 19.”
The League’s first award recipient was Town Clerk MaryEllen Marshall for “not just doing her job,” but among other things explaining to the high school students how to register to vote.
A large volunteer presence
In addition to the League, Legvold is also a member of Lex-Rap (Lexington Refugee Assistance Program) and helps provide gifts for their families. She was also one of the founders of Winchester’s Town Common, whose calendar of events is part of Winchester News.
A lifelong English and social studies teacher, Legvold got her start and met her husband in South Dakota where she recalls sitting on her “grandfather’s lap, listening to FDR’s Fireside Chats. One of my parents was a Democrat and the other a Republican.”
Which must have led to her lifelong interest in politics.
“I’ve been a member of the League since I was 26,” she says.
Legvold and her husband, Robert, traveled to many parts of the world, including West African countries (where he worked on his dissertation about the Soviet Union activities there). She taught reading in Gambia.
After retiring, Legvold joined the Massachusetts Audubon’s Belmont Habitat, where she created a sun garden and a moon garden for use in children’s classes.
One of her most cherished volunteer activities is as a member of the Winchester Unitarian Society’s social outreach group, where she helps write a column on racial justice.
And three years ago she helped start an annual holiday tradition, the Mitten Tree, where paper mittens specify suggested gifts and parishioners donate them.
“We filled a huge car with gifts for refugee families!” she says.
Legvold’s yard also borders on a woodsy town property and she even voluntarily paints the handrail in it.
The League invites the public to the award ceremony at the Jenks Center,109 Skillings Road, on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
The event is sponsored by a donation from the Cummings Foundation.
