Volunteer Spotlight: David & Linda Burrichter
Volunteer Spotlight: David & Linda Burrichter
Life’s blessings are meant to be shared
As part of National Volunteer Recognition Week, which is held April 21-27, 2024, we will be spotlighting a volunteer each day. Cornwall Manor is proud to recognize 352 volunteers dedicated their time and talents to Cornwall Manor throughout 2023, contributing 23,821 hours to our community
“We’ve been extremely blessed in our life,” shares Linda Burrichter. “So, it’s natural to want to pay it forward.”
David and Linda Burrichter share many years of marriage, three children, six grandchildren and they have traveled to all 50 states and over 60 countries. Dave graduated from Iowa State University from Veterinary School. Linda earned a bachelors degree, also from Iowa State University (they met in college) in Home Economics/Food Nutrition. After Dave graduated, they relocated to the Altoona, Pennsylvania area where they resided for five years.
Once they started their family, Linda stayed home to raise their family and she got involved in school and church activities, including her children’s classroom, the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and church Sunday School at the local church they attended.
In 1972, they relocated to Columbia in Lancaster County, where Dave was immersed in his work at The Columbia Animal Hospital, servicing dairy and small animals. He didn’t turn anyone away as he was just starting his practice.
While Dave was working long days and seven-days-a-week, Linda continued to raise the family and run the house. Their daughter had an opportunity to be a Junior Docent at Wheatland, the homestead of James Buchanan, the 15th President of The United States. When Wheatland needed more volunteer tour guides, Linda was hesitant to give it a try, but she did and loved it – being a Wheatland volunteer tour guide for 12 years.
As the children were growing, Linda’s involvement expanded to working at Dave’s practice handling administrative tasks and being a paid tour guide for Lancaster, Hershey and Philadelphia areas.
Fast forward to 2005 when Dave sold his practice and his retirement included the three Gs – golf, gardening and grandchildren. After retirement, he took the Master Gardner course at the Penn State Extension. He’s not really retired as he continues to serves as a relief veterinarian, substituting for vets that are at training or on vacation. Keeping his license active, he still performs surgeries on Tuesday mornings.
Throughout David and Linda’s lifetime, Dave has been on 24 different mission trips; 14 with the Christian Veterinary Mission, five with Pennsylvania Veterinary Association and six to seven trips that were church based helping in disaster-struck areas like Katrina (after the hurricane of 2005), Hungary, Romania, Haiti, Nicaragua, Belize, and Guatemala.
Linda has gone along on several of the mission trips, including their most recent week-long trip in December 2023 to Uganda where Linda taught and Dave treated over 700 animals in two mornings.
Dave and Linda moved to Cornwall Manor in 2017 and quickly became involved in the community. Dave got involved with the Garden and Greenhouse Committee and later chaired the committee, the Tree and Environment and the Men’s Chorus. Linda is a cashier at the Manor Shoppe, serves on the Dining Committee, is part of the Woods Ladies Bible Study and does crafts in Corson Hall Personal Care. Both Dave and Linda participate in the Pen Pals program, where they exchange hand-written letters with fourth-grade classes at nearby Cornwall Elementary School. They also have served as Marketing Ambassadors, being part of photoshoots for marketing collateral or hosting prospective residents.
“There’s nothing worse than being alone in a crowd,” shares Linda. “There are always opportunities to meet people, reach out and make a friend…and that is accomplished through volunteering.”
Dave who worked a lifetime in the service industry shares that while he likes to solve others problems that his most rewarding accomplishment is helping people and the opportunities to continue learning, even in retirement.
The Burrichters know they are blessed, but it can be easy to lose sight of that. Linda shares that on one of their missions’ trips to Haiti, “we met a man who was so proud of his house and he wanted to show it to us. His residence was a mud hut with a straw roof. It had no windows. There was a handmade table with two chairs and there were blankets on the floor where the family slept… but, yet this man was so proud.” Linda pauses as she shares her story. “This keeps things in perspective. We have so much to be grateful for and volunteering has given that back to us.”
