volunteer of the year 2025: donna treuel

L.I.F.E. Ministries Food Pantry is proud to announce the selection of Donna Treuel as our Volunteer of the Year for 2025.

After spending her first thirteen years living in various locations as the daughter of a Navy Commander, Donna spent most of her life in Lakeland, Florida before relocating to Wolfeboro in 2006. She has been married to her husband, Ralph, for thirty-three years. Her son, Will, graduated from Kingswood Regional High School and Bryant College and lives in Portsmouth.

Donna spent many years as a stay-at-home mother as her husband travelled frequently during his career. She worked part-time for the Libby Museum for eight years, and recently began working part-time at Spider Web Gardens. She has been a volunteer at the Food Pantry for about seven years, and is known and appreciated as a quiet but tireless worker, adept at all of the various tasks associated with the distribution operation. She recently began assisting Judy Cole, the Pantry’s Volunteer Coordinator, in scheduling the assignments of the more than seventy-five volunteers. She enjoys her work at the Pantry, noting that she works with kind, friendly, and selfless people, and that everyone works well together and helps each other out.

She is certainly one of those people. “Donna goes about her work quietly and efficiently,” said Bill Connors, President of the Food Pantry; “she is always available when she is needed for distribution, stocking food as it is delivered, filling Vacation Station bags, processing food brought in during food drives, responding when needed for unexpected absences – whatever has to be done.” Ralph Parsons, who is responsible for stocking the Pantry, noted that whenever Donna has a lull in her work, she asks him if he has anything that needs to be done, and she is a tremendous help to his job.

Connors noted that Donna was surprised by her nomination for Volunteer of the Year; she said she felt that she didn’t do any more than anyone else did. “That is what makes her a perfect recipient for the award. Like so many of our volunteers, she is part of a team that doesn’t look for any special recognition, but just wants to do good work to support members of the community who need our help.”

On behalf of the board of directors and our grateful clients, we thank Donna for the great work she does for the Food Pantry.