HOOKSETT – When Mary Farwell moved to Hooksett 40 years ago she discovered a perfect place to raise a family. And since she has been in town, she has made every effort to serve the community that she grew so fond of.

In honor of those efforts, Farwell will receive the 2012 Citizen of the Year award, presented by the Lion's Club, in a ceremony Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Puritan Backroom in Manchester.

Farwell began her service to the town as a budget committee member in 1983. She said she had no prior experience in town government, but with the help and guidance of other committee members, Farwell served for six years.

In 1989 when the town decided to change from a board of selectmen style government to a town council, Farwell was asked to run for the newly established charter commission. That commission developed the town charter that is still in use today.

“The charter has stood the test of time for 23 years,” Farwell said. “There have been amendments but the major part of what we did has held up.”

She went on to serve as a library trustee and the human service secretary of the Hooksett unit of the Salvation Army, coordinating the bell-ringers throughout town each Christmas.

Farwell calls the work she has put in at the Hooksett Library her true labor of love. With Farwell as chairwoman of the Hooksett Library Building Committee, the the library was renovated in 1998.

Farwell said the goal for the library is to be on the cutting edge with technology and to strive to be the best library in New Hampshire. In 2010, she was nominated by her fellow trustees and was named the Lillian Edelmann Library Trustee of the Year, an award presented by the New Hampshire Library Trustees Association.

“The library trustees are a great group and it was a tremendous honor to be named trustee of the year,” Farwell said.

But what Farwell said is one of the biggest challenges but also most rewarding is the work she does coordinating the Salvation Army bell ringers each holiday season. Though Hooksett is a small town of approximately 14,000 residents, it does extraordinarily well in raising money with the Salvation Army kettles.

With kettles at Walmart, Market Basket, the state liquor stores on Interstate 93, K-Mart and Shaw's, Farwell said it takes a dedicated group to fill each bell-ringing shift.

Though she said the Citizen of the Year recognition is an honor,she asks that people wishing to support her service to the town help recruit more bell-ringers. This year alone, Hooksett collected nearly $60,000 for the Salvation Army.

“If you have the kettles there, people are generous and they'll give,” Farwell said. “But we need help from Hooksett citizens who think what we do is worthwhile.”

Jim Sullivan, a past-president of the Lion's Club and the coordinator of the dinner celebration said Farwell has not only been a longtime positive attribute to the town, but continues her dedicated work in multiple capacities.

“She is still doing most of that stuff and has been doing it for all these years,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Farwell will receive a gold watch, a scroll written out in calligraphy and will be honored with videos and presentations.

Farwell said Hooksett produces numerous dedicated volunteers and she has been honored to work with so many of them. She said numerous residents could have been chosen as citizen of the year and she is humbled that she was selected. She said the volunteer spirit in Hooksett makes it a truly special place.

“Nobody's looking for glory,” Farwell said. “Everybody does it because it's a good thing to do. We manage to have a lot of fun and still serve the community.”