Community Corner
Volunteers Spend Saturday Doing Yard Work for Seniors
About two dozen teams spread out Saturday morning throughout Plymouth and Canton to help get seniors' yards ready for spring.
About 170 volunteers fanned out Saturday morning in Plymouth and Canton to help clean up yards for senior citizens as part of the Plymouth Community United Way’s Spring Rake-N-Go program.
The volunteers met at 8 a.m. at the Salvation Army Plymouth Corps on Main Street, then split into teams to spend the day helping 45 seniors. Each team planned to work at two or three houses.
At Bob Rienas’ house on Appletree Drive, six young men and women took less than five minutes to collect equipment, then immediately began blowing leaves, pruning trees, pulling weeds and just generally getting dirty with yard work.
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Reinas, 83, who lives at the home with his wife, Joan Anderson, said he thinks the program is “fantastic.”
“I can’t do this stuff anymore. It’s a great service that the seniors can really use,” he said.
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The United Way sponsors two cleanup days a year for seniors, with the fall event coinciding with the group’s annual Make-A-Difference day.
Marie Morrow, president of the Plymouth chapter, said both programs are designed to help people such as Rienas who have trouble with some of the harder yard tasks.
“We have seniors come to us for help with things like this, and we have so many local volunteers who want to do things for others. It just is a great way to put the two together,” Morrow said.
Volunteer Lori Moizio said she participated because it’s important to set an example for children. “We need to teach them how it’s important to give back to your community,” Moizio said.
The team at Rienas’ house included Laila Al-Duwaisan of Royal Oak, Zack Allen of Canton, Kyle Gismondi of Canton, Aaron Laurentius of Canton, Abby Stonerook of Plymouth and her brother Nick Stonerook, United Way finance associate.
As she helped Al-Duwaisan prune shrubs in Reinas’ front yard, Stonerook, 26, said she agrees that volunteering instills a sense of community to young people.
“By volunteering, you learn the Golden Rule, how it comes around," she said. "These seniors we’re helping, they’re just like our own parents and grandparents, and we would want others to help them just like we’re doing today.”
