The PRT Good Neighbor Award recognizes people who voluntarily build a better community in Canelo, Elgin, Sonoita and Patagonia. We asked our readers to nominate someone they knew who was a ‘good neighbor.’ Thank you for sending in your nominations for the 2024 Good Neighbor Awards. Congratulations to this year’s winners!
Chuck Klingenstein nominated Linda Shore for the PRT’s Good Neighbor award. He wrote, “I am surrounded by many great neighbors and community members. Linda Shore stands out. Linda impresses me as a person committed to getting things done and jumping into leadership roles as needed. Her accomplishments include president of the Sky Islands Tourist Association, president of the Red Rocks HOA, member of the South32 Community Advisory Committee, president of the library advisory board and co-chair of the Nature Based Restoration Economy study. Additionally, she supports numerous websites for various nonprofits, some of which she is also a member of. And while doing all her civic work, her family always comes first.
“One thing I like about Patagonia is that there are a lot of opportunities to help,” Linda Shore said. She has jumped into many, and created others, all with an eye on Patagonia’s past, present and future.
Information technology, antiquing, management, and a passion for getting things done are strengths Linda brought to Patagonia when she and husband Tom arrived from Phoenix in 2016. Though eager to leave city life after retiring from a long career with computer systems companies, Linda was not ready to stop helping organizations reach their goals.
Longtime avid antiquers, Linda and Tom had made annual buying trips through the Midwest to stock an antique store in Kansas run by Linda’s sister. So naturally, Linda’s first focus here was the Patagonia Museum, which was just getting up and running at the time. She played a big role, finding historic display cabinetry and securing the Museum’s initial donations of artifacts and materials, including the extensive George Proctor collection, out of boxes and into public view. She continues to serve as the Museum’s curator today.
Next, Linda became involved with the Patagonia Library, where she joined the Advisory Board, which helps the Town recruit key library personnel, and keep the budget balanced. She is now Advisory Board Chair.
Linda also took on the leadership role at the Sky Islands Tourism Association (SITA), where she built and manages the website that features Patagonia, Sonoita and Elgin businesses. Sensitive to local sentiments about avoiding over-tourism, SITA’s focus is to provide information about member businesses’ services, rather than broad promotional outreach.
Linda also created and manages the websites of the Patagonia Library, the Museum, and the Benderly-Kimball Opera House for the Santa Cruz Foundation for the Performing Arts.
When asked about her underlying motivations for getting involved in so many organizations and projects, Linda said, “I’m a person who likes to see things get done. I enjoy figuring out energy into productive results.”
“I get my stubbornness…from my dad,” Linda continued. “He was captured on Okinawa in WWII and escaped while on the Bataan Death March in the Philippines. He was recaptured and spent 21/2 years as a POW doing hard labor in Japanese coal mines. When finally liberated, he weighed 108 pounds but made it home to South Dakota and was welcomed as a hometown hero.”
Linda also learned from her family about how to get things done. “My mother worked,” she said, “so as the oldest of four, I helped manage the other children and household tasks.”
Beyond area nonprofits, Linda got involved with citizen groups focused on Patagonia’s future. She co-chaired the 2019 “Nature-based Restorative Economy in Santa Cruz County” initiative, raising funds and contracting with the University of Arizona to conduct the study. The results, which quantified the economic contributions of the area’s non-mining activities, have been repeatedly used in town and county planning.
In a logical next step, Linda joined the Community Advisory Panel for the South32 Hermosa Mine project, which helps identify local impacts and priorities to balance community and mine interests. She is still a panel member today.
More recently, Linda has helped found the new non-profit Friends of San Rafael Valley to help find ways to fund the preservation of the historic ranch house in the San Rafael Natural Preserve by highlighting the area’s value as a native grasslands research facility.
And in February, Linda is teaming up with Cassina Farley of the Patagonia Creative Arts Association and Christina Wilhelm of the Santa Cruz Foundation for the Performing Arts to launch a coalition of local non-profit organizations.
The group envisions benefits like sharing equipment and a volunteer database, and planning collaborative projects that could qualify for larger grants.