Category: Donor Stories

Meet Susan and Peter Goodwin

Susan Goodwin can’t remember a time when she didn’t feel responsible, to some degree, for the health of Lake Wentworth—the lake where she’s spent all her summers.

Susan’s great grandparents first came to Lake Wentworth in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, in the 1890s and stayed at Point Breeze Resort. At some point, her relatives and their friends purchased a nearby beach so they could swim and boat there. Then, some years later, they decided to build houses. “In 1912, my two great aunts built the house we now have,” recounts Susan.

 

Susan’s family traditions are Lake Wentworth traditions.

“Both sets of my grandparents built houses here so my parents grew up summering next door to each other and were married here at the lake—as were Peter and I.”

Fortunately, Susan and her husband, Peter, both became school teachers. So, at the end of the school year, they packed up their car with their two boys and came to Lake Wentworth for three months. “My boys spent every waking minute in or on the lake, until they got summer jobs.”

Susan is alarmed by the changes she’s seen at Lake Wentworth over the course of her lifetime. Just in these last 70 of the lake’s 15,000 years, Susan has seen a dramatic change in the bottom of the lake. She can remember a time when the lake bottom was clean and sandy all the way out to the middle. “Now, the bottom is much darker and covered with low plants in places and, periodically, we get big gobs of algae drifting in.”

Since retiring, both Susan and Peter have been working in many different ways to keep the lake healthy. Susan has served as president of the NH LAKES Board of Directors and she currently serves as a trustee of the Loon Preservation Committee. Susan is also very hands-on with her lake conservation activities. In addition to helping with milfoil removal, Susan runs the Lake Host aquatic invasive species prevention program at Lake Wentworth.

She’s always known the lake she loves couldn’t take care of itself. Susan made the decision to leave a gift to NH LAKES in her Will. “It makes me feel really good to know the work I’ve dedicated so much to will continue on. That everything that can be done to keep these lakes healthy.

You can be like Peter and Susan, too! If you have already included NH LAKES in your Will or estate plans or intend to do so, please contact Martha Lovejoy, Director of Finance and Development, at 603.226.0299 or mlovejoy@nhlakes.org and let her know!

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