Telstar senior Mariah Palmer, right, with Scott Hynek, left, and Justin Bondeson pulled weeds Oct. 19 at Sandra Gunther’s house on a day of service. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen
BETHEL — “Oh what a wonderful thing,” said Sandra Gunther, 83, when she saw all of the gardening happening around her Bailey Road home where a team of seven had come to pull forsythia with a winch and clean out around a rhododendron bush beside her house.
This is the seventh year of the “Handy Neighbor Program,” a collaboration between the Age-Friendly Community Initiative, Telstar High School and the NorthStar Program.
The two days of service helps with AFCI’s mission to “explore ways to make the community more supportive of healthy aging and to make it possible for people to stay in their own homes and communities as they age.”
Telstar Seniors and twins Mariah and Beka Palmer, 17, said they had done public service but never while using a winch. They learned with the help of North Star Program Coordinator Jason Bondeson and Rotarian Scott Hynek how to rip forsythia from a hillside with Hynek’s winch attached to a truck.
“We’re the work smart, not hard, crew,” said Bondeson
The hillside surrounds an ice pond that had been dug with a horse-drawn backhoe in the early 1900’s by Gunther’s husband’s ancestors. Once it was weeded, Gunther hoped to better see the Siberian Iris, lemon thyme, and crown vetch she had planted there.
Sandra Gunther, left, had help with weeding from Senior Sarah Chase and others Oct. 19 in the Handy Neighbor Program. Rose Lincoln/Bethel Citizen
Telstar Music Teacher Jen Christiansen working with her daughter, Bella Bennett and and another senior, Sarah Chase were weeding beside Gunther’s house. Chase said it was nice that Gunther was there to give them direction when they arrived, so they could pull out the right weeds.
A few miles away on Broad Street in Bethel, seniors Ryan Davis, Kimball Coolidge, Wyatt Lilly, Scarlett Quick, and Gavin Mitchell worked with Charlie Raymond and Telstar Physical Education and Health Teacher Scott Underhill. They raked leaves at Stan Howe’s house, using a few large tarps to dump them in the woods.
Students in Telstar’s sophomore class branched out on Oct. 20 to work at more residences in and around Bethel.
Raymond and Charlie Reiss worked with Nancy Davis from AFCI; Telstar Principal John Eliot; Carrie Lynch; Lyndsey Smith; Bondesen; and AmeriCorps Service Member Jonathan Wallace to organize this year’s program.
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