"Superwoman" Joanne Shope retires after 28 years with Christmas Cheer

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - At the age of 90, most people have already been enjoying several years of retirement, but that hasn't been the case for Joanne Shope of South Lake Tahoe.

Since 1995, Joanne has been a volunteer at Christmas Cheer, the last nine of those years as the non-profit's unpaid executive director.

Christmas Cheer is a local non-profit food pantry that provides monthly staples and perishable food to residents in need, along with clothing, shoes, toys, and household items.

It has been a shining light to those in the community needing a little cheer, much due to the neverending work of Joanne. At a dinner in her honor in 2015, she was honored as "Superwoman," a title she lives up to daily. Now she is ready to step back and start working on the seven pages of "to-do" lists she has been waiting to tackle.

"I want very much to retire," said Joanne on May 26, her last day of gathering food donations for clients.

She works six days a week and said she found she was only living to work. Besides directing Christmas Cheer, Joanne is also a docent every Monday at Virginia City's St. Mary in the Mountains. St. Mary is the oldest active Catholic church in Nevada and has a world-class museum.

Joanne used to run half-marathons and did a lot of hiking, and even though she can no longer do those two activities, she'll can wait to start doing more traveling (one of her seven lists is full of destinations she wants to visit). The longest of those lists is the one full of places she's like to see.

"I miss the little trips," said Joanne of the short two-day drives she'd take. "I love road trips."

Now her time allows her to get into her car more often and start checking off the bucket list of trips. One she wants to undertake is a visit to Mesa Verde National Park which offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans.

She also plans on visits with her daughter in Texas, four grandchildren in Montana and Florida, and then there are the three great-granddaughters.

But first, there are those pesky lists full of things she'd put off with all the volunteer hours that fill her days. Joanne said she wants to get her computer working, do yard work, and clean the house.

"No 90-year-old great-grandma should work this hard," said Joanne.

Joanne grew up in Youngstown, Ohio which was a big steel town at the time. She said she always had the ambition of moving west. When she met her husband, who had been stationed in the service in Northern California, they decided to follow her dream. They got married in 1953, and on their wedding night, they started driving west. They spent 10 years in Oakland, and years in Covina before moving to Lake Tahoe in 1974.

In her pre-Christmas Cheer life, Joanne was a family nurse practitioner with El Dorado County's Health Department, worked at Barton Community Clinic, and did night deliveries at Barton Hospital.

She got fascinated with movie theater equipment and learned enough to become the relief projectionist at the four theaters in South Lake Tahoe - the drive-in, the Stateline theater, and the two at the Y. She ran the movies as her night job and, for five years, was even the manager at the Stateline theater.

Joanne will be staying in South Lake Tahoe as she can't think of any better place to live. She will also volunteer a bit at Christmas Cheer when needed, continue at the Virginia City museum, and volunteer with the American Legion Auxiliary. She is also a member of Soroptimist of Tahoe Sierra.

"Joanne has been dedicated to Christmas Cheer for years, always works, and did a lot for us," said long-time Christmas Cheer board member Tom Davis. "I have enjoyed working for her. She never says 'no' and always finds a way to make things happen."

"I want to give a big thank you to this community," said Joanne. "People want to help."

We want to say, "thank you" Joanne!