BRATTLEBORO-Great-great-grandmother Shirley Squires is also a great, great fundraiser.
The 94-year-old Guilford resident arrived at the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont charity walk on May 31 with four generations of family, including the newest member born just two weeks ago.
Though rain forced organizers to cancel the annual outdoor stroll, Squires still shined, raising $22,291 in contributions this year to reach a lifetime fundraising milestone of $500,298.
"Your unwavering commitment is nothing short of extraordinary," U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vermont, wrote to Squires in a letter read at Brattleboro's Centre Congregational Church.
Squires first learned of the AIDS walk in 1992 when her son - state Rep. Ronald Squires, the first Vermont lawmaker to reveal his homosexuality - spoke at it shortly after winning passage of a statute prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
"We can teach our children how to prevent AIDS or we can sit and watch them die," the Democratic legislator told the Town Crier at the time.
The 41-year-old died of the disease in January 1993. Five months later, his mother joined the walk to raise money in his memory.
"After the painful loss of my brother, a tragedy that would have broken many, my mom chose to turn grief into action," Diana Squires recalled Saturday alongside many of her mother's 74 children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.
Since starting in 1993, the matriarch has yet to miss a year of fundraising - continuing even this winter, when she broke her shoulder before she was set to handwrite 500 solicitation letters.
AIDS, once considered a death sentence, is now a treatable condition that about 750 Vermonters are living with through help from the Brattleboro-based service organization, along with Vermont CARES and the Upper Valley's HIV/HCV Resource Center, according to the state.
To honor Squires' half-million-dollar milestone, the AIDS Project is renaming its annual fundraiser the Ron and Shirley Squires AIDS Walk. Its top finisher promised to be back next year after celebrating her 95th birthday in August.
"I will keep doing this until I'm not here anymore," she said.
This story was republished with permission from VTDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To support this work, please visit vtdigger.org/donate.
This News item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.