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Sister Duo Receives Lions’ Volunteer of the Year Award

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Lions Club President Susan Favorite introducing Nancy Rice and her sister Carol Long. L-R Lion Albie Little, Nancy Rice, Carol Long, Lion Joyce Anthony and Lion Susan Favorite.

The Thurmont Lions Club bestowed a sister-duo its Volunteers of the Year Award for 2021. The award was announced during the April 20, 2021, Town of Thurmont meeting. Carol Long and Nancy Rice, both of Thurmont, were the recipients.

Carol Long was nominated for her tireless volunteer work within the Thurmont Community including service to the Thurmont Senior Center, Weller United Methodist Church, the Thurmont and Emmitsburg Community Show, and the Thurmont Grange. 

With the senior center, Carol serves as secretary on the board of directors. She puts together all the baskets for their raffles; she sells tickets at the center; and helps with bingo and a multitude of unending details.

She makes the grand prize quilt for the senior center’s Christmas raffle. The quilt is nicely wrapped in a clear package with the story of the quilt attached. Carol is chairperson of the senior center’s Christmas Party and runs the event which is held at the Graceham Moravian Church. Since the Christmas Party was not held in December 2020 due to COVID restrictions, she still arranged for one of her committee members to pick up over 52 door prizes which she puts in beautiful baskets or packages. The prizes were delivered to winners directly to their houses. In addition, Carol made thank you cards for all the donors and sent them out.

Carol and her sister Nancy, and Nancy’s granddaughter volunteer their baking talents making treats. They dress up and deliver the treats singing Happy Birthday to the seniors who are registered with the senior center. This has brought much joy to the seniors. Also, she participates in the drive-by parade, greeting people in the community by waving and blowing car horns from June through October.

Every fall, with the exception of fall 2020, Carol sets up the display at the annual Community Show at the Catoctin High School, where the Senior Center has a quilt on display and sells raffle tickets.

During the Senior Center monthly fundraiser at Roy Rogers on the second Thursday evening, Carol sets up and later takes down the signage. Carol’s father-in-law lives next door to her. She provides meals for him. She also helps her husband on their farm.

Since Carol has nothing else to do, she makes homemade cards from photographs with witty poems and sayings for special events or for a Board member or senior that needs a pick-me-up.

Carol retired from the banking industry. She knows so many people from being a former bank employee. She is kind, caring, honest, hard-working, and always has a smile on her face.

Nancy Rice is an individual who does her work in the background, never seeking recognition regardless of how richly she deserves it. Nancy is a director on the Thurmont Senior Center Board. She is known for the apple dumplings she was making for the monthly TSC bake sales—they sold out in minutes—and she was making dozens of them each month. She has been a part of the TSC Troupe that has been doing drive-by birthday greetings to TSC clients reminding them that they are important in a pandemic world where so many of our elderly are alone and isolated.

Nancy has been an amazing supporter of the Thurmont Lions Club although she is not a member. She has contributed countless hours to the TLC projects. She made apple dumplings for the pit sandwich sale in October, donating all her supplies and time. She has helped to paint the Community Tree ornaments, again donating her supplies and time. Most recently, she helped to paint tote bags for the TES and TPS Read-A-Thon winners to carry their winnings home. The tote bags had lions and books and motivational sayings on them, and, once again, she donated her time and supplies to the projects.

Nancy is also a devoted member of her church (Weller United Methodist Church), and in the words of her Pastor Bob Kells, “Nancy has done just about everything a volunteer can do!” She has served as a trustee, helped keep the church facilities up to snuff, sung in the choir, helped lead the singing during worship services, and performed a duet with her sister Carol at Christmas time.

Nancy served for a year as the interim Church Council chair, and Nancy was probably the last Weller member to visit a former member in a nursing home in Westminster before the woman died. Nancy told Pastor Kells how fulfilling that was for the both of them.

Nancy has artistic talents. She has drawn Christmas cards for the church and designed the current logo for the church vision, “The church on the hill with a heart for all.”

Nancy made a coloring book for children for a relative’s church and donated the proceeds from the sale of the books to the church. Nancy hand-painted the signs that sit outside the church at Christmas time. This year, she created a Resurrection scene in wood that sits on our altar.

“Nancy doesn’t reserve her good deeds to just organizations. She has delivered goodies and mowed the yard for a close neighbor who has been ill; she delivers her homemade goodies to lots of people around town. She pitches in wherever she sees a need; she brings light wherever she sees darkness and she spreads joy wherever she can.”

Nancy makes a difference in her quiet way throughout the town of Thurmont. She is one of those people with a servant’s heart.

Local Artist Displays Her Talents

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Maxine Troxell

Nancy Rice has been a Thurmont resident all her adult life. When not sitting at an easel or her workbench, her time is consumed by volunteering at her church, the Thurmont Senior Center, and wherever else she is asked to help.

Nancy’s interest in art began in junior high school, continuing through high school. She credits her art teacher, Arthur Gernand, for instilling in her a love of many different forms of art. However, she is a self-taught artist for the most part, using the Realism style. She also mentioned that each of her extended family, beginning on her maternal great-grandmother Guyton’s side, has an inherited talent for creating.  Every uncle, aunt, and cousin has an artistic skill of some kind.

In the 1980s, Nancy developed an interest in gourd art as a hobby. She grew and dried hard-shelled gourds, which she then cleaned and painted. She particularly liked painting birds and flowers and landscapes on them. At that time, gourds were very popular items at craft shows. She turned them into bird houses, bowls, dippers, etc. Nancy would also teach others, and was invited to conduct workshops at Frederick Homemakers Clubs, Rose Hill Manor, and other places. Nancy was also chosen to be included in a story in a national magazine Birds and Blooms. She continued doing gourd art for nearly 20 years and still is occasionally asked for a decorated gourd.

Nancy decided to try her luck at airbrushing. She enjoyed that type of painting very much and developed a skill for using an airbrush. Many local people knew about her painting ability and would ask her to do projects for them. One day, she received a call from a lady who had a “Gone With The Wind lamp.”  The top globe had accidentally been broken. The lady purchased a plain white globe and asked Nancy if she could paint it to match the bottom globe. Nancy agreed to paint it and did so by airbrushing a floral design. She was sort of surprised herself when it did indeed match. When she delivered the globe back to the lady, the lady was overcome with happiness, and tears flowed. Nancy saw that same reaction numerous times, thus knowing her clients were very satisfied.

After retiring from work 15 years ago, Nancy devoted a lot of time to improving her painting skills. “I developed a passion for acrylic painting on canvas,” said Nancy.

She soon had friends and strangers asking her to paint landscapes, dogs, cats, and portraits. A very popular item is a wooden replica she would make of one’s home from a photo. The very first one she created, a Virginia mansion, was so well liked by the family that she ended up making a total of nine for all the owner’s grandchildren. They remembered visiting their grandparents at that home as children and were elated to receive a replica. Nancy still chooses not to advertise her work. Word of mouth is best.

Nancy likes her work to reflect on special moments or memories. She shall always remember being asked to paint a childhood picture of seven siblings on a wooden bowl. They had lived in poverty, and the only other picture the mother had of her young children was from a newspaper article. This painted bowl was to be a special Mother’s Day gift for the elderly mom; one can imagine the joy it brought to her, not to mention how it warmed Nancy’s heart as well.

Frequently, Nancy will create her own gifts to give people for special occasions. Once, she painted a large portrait of a young couple and gave it to them as a wedding gift. 

Then, there are the dogs. She has painted so many. One client, in particular, wanted a large painting of their four beagles in a group setting, using four individual photos. I am sure it still hangs in a special place in their home.

Her canvas can also be wood, sawblades, slate, etc. Nancy is proud to have her artwork spread over many states and countries, from Thurmont to California to Norfolk, England. She said it has been a privilege making so many folks smile.

Two years ago, she accepted the biggest challenge yet. Nancy was asked to illustrate a coloring book—22 pages. Her uncle, Ernest Rice, had written a song and wanted to create a coloring book. Each page would contain a line from the song, and she was to draw an illustration to go along with the words. Hesitantly, she said yes. Well, she did get it completed and how special it is. Some pages have pictures drawn of her grandchildren, her dog, her husband, her uncles, and her aunts. The books were printed and sold, with all proceeds going to non-profit use. Her time and talent was donated—her way of giving back.  A limited supply of these coloring books are still available. Anyone interested can purchase one from Nancy at 301-271-4637.

Nancy sees no end in sight for doing what she loves—making friends and strangers happy.

Nancy Rice creates a wooden replica of the home pictured in the photo.


Nancy Rice does a large painting for a client of their four beagles in a group setting, using four individual photos.