Lu-Lu Thomas recently was named the Junior League
of Boca Raton’s Woman Volunteer of the Year. Photo by Tim Stepien
By Liz Best
When the Junior League of Boca Raton named Lu-Lu Culpepper Thomas its most recent Woman Volunteer of the Year, members could easily have upped the ante and dubbed her the Boca Raton Volunteer of the Century.
It’s hard to find an organization in the Boca Raton area that hasn’t benefited from the time and seemingly boundless energy of Thomas, who soon turns 86.
She modestly says it’s just the way she is.
“I get up in the morning and I put on my clothes and my hose and my high heels and I leave the house,” said Thomas, who now lives in Pompano Beach.
She and her late husband, Vernon “Pat” Thomas, moved to Boca Raton in 1974. Then they got busy immersing themselves in the South Florida community. Following his death in the late 1990s, Thomas just kept on doing the same things.
She has spent hours volunteering for groups ranging from Boca Raton Historical Society Museum, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Boca Raton Pops, Boca Raton Museum of Art, FAU Friends of the Library and Music Guild of Boca Raton to Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters, Florida Philharmonic, Caldwell Theatre and Boca Raton Police Department.
And that’s just to name a few.
“We were just having a good time,” said this mother and grandmother.
And even as a widow, Thomas continues to have a good time.
Born on a tobacco farm in Rocky Mount, N.C., Thomas was the second of 10 children. She remembers the Depression well, and remembers that her large family survived those lean years by living off the land and by receiving a healthy dose of love.
“We raised everything we ate,” she said. “And we went to my grandmother’s house every Sunday. It was simple and it was wonderful.”
Thomas married when she was 16. She and her husband lived all over the world during his career in the Army and then as an employee of Ford Motor Co. in Detroit. Although she doesn’t have a degree, Thomas took college courses everywhere she lived.
These days, Thomas limits her volunteer efforts to serving as a greeter at the historical society museum and at the Boca Police Department. To fill in the remainder of her time, she plays bridge — a lot of bridge, she says — and stays in physical shape by walking every day, taking aerobics classes and practicing yoga.
To stay in shape spiritually, she spends as much time as possible with her daughter and grandchildren in Fort Lauderdale. Thomas has always enjoyed being around younger people and believes it is the secret to her longevity.
“Your age is just two numbers put together. I think it’s the spirit. Keep your thoughts right … and it doesn’t matter how old you are. It’s your spirit that keeps you all right,” she said.
Thomas believes young people learn from the stamina they see in their elders. Rather than trying to teach younger people, she listens to them.
Today’s youth have a different take on the world than Thomas did as she was growing up during the Great Depression. She embraces these different attitudes and tries to learn as much as possible from them.
“It’s like a rainbow. A rainbow is all different colors and it’s beautiful.” Ú
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