Her great grandmother, Elizabeth (Moon) Parry served on the board of Friends Boarding Home (now Friends Village) in some of the earliest years after the organization was founded in 1897 and after Judge Paxson built and donated Paxson Hall to the organization in 1900. Elizabeth’s son, Lydia’s grandfather, Henry C. Parry, served as secretary of the board of Friends Home, her father, William B.K. Parry, chaired the board for many years, and her father’s cousin, Laura Cadwallader Clappison, was a director. Lydia followed in their footsteps, serving on the Friends Village board for more than 15 years.

While on the board, Lydia brought a creative approach to drawing the community together with Friends Village, organizing a Zoo Friends event that brough zoo animals from the Philadelphia Zoo to the Styer Campus to the delight of neighborhood children and residents alike. A memorable photo opportunity involving a baby and a camel luckily came off without a hitch.

Several of Lydia’s other community involvements are on display at Newtown’s Market Day each year, including flower arranging by her Countryside Gardeners garden club (which also maintains the garden behind the Half Moon Inn) and a rug hooking demonstration by the Hunterdon County Rug Artisans Guild that endeavors to attract young people to the craft. She is involved in decorating the Half Moon Inn each year in the traditional Williamsburg Style for the Newtown Historic Association’s December Open House.

Other organizations have benefitted from the involvement of the Parry Family over the years, including Historic Fallsington (Lydia’s grandparents Henry C. and Mary K. Parry were involved and Lydia maintains her involvement), and Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve (Mary K. Parry conceived the idea for and actively supported the organization). Lydia’s great grandfather, William B. Parry, was involved in originating the trolley lines that took residents of Bucks County from Bristol through Newtown and Doylestown and all the way up to Easton, Pennsylvania in the early 1900s. Her great grandmother, Elizabeth M. Parry, was a founder of the Bucks County Historical Society and served as a director of Jeannes Hospital.

Lydia’s brothers have also been engaged in building community in the greater Newtown area, and several members of the next generation of the Parry Family are actively involved in the local community, including with several of the aforementioned organizations.