| Seniors helping others. From left to right: Ron Donahue, 72, Norm Benson, 77and George Nesbitt, 80. |
Seniors Use Retirement to Create Useful School Tools Editor's Note: One of the myths of aging is that senior citizens no longer contribute to society. Increasingly, we find seniors who continue to be outstanding in their career fields, starting new careers, making the world better or proving outstanding mental and physical fitness. This is one of those stories and we welcome more such contributions from our readers. Send your story to editor@seniorjournal.com |
Jan. 30, 2003 - For a number of hours each day, a group of male residents at Brooksby, an active, independent, retirement community in Peabody, Massachusetts, are in the woodshop making a racket with electric saws, sanders and drills. But unless you ask them what they’re up to, these men don’t like to make a lot of noise about the importance of the work they’re doing. Six men at Brooksby have been busy the past few months making desktop incline boards, nested benches and desktop easels out of Baltic birch plywood for a number of special needs schools in the area. The equipment will be delivered to schools to help children with a variety of special needs. Brooksby residents were able to get involved with this project by working with the Pine Tree Society, an organization in Maine which supplies equipment to schools for children with special needs at a reasonable cost through The Kids’ Project. "The incline boards are used by school districts for children with all sorts of different disabilities, and can be used with desks, tables or wheelchair trays," said Teresa Barrow, director of The Kids’ Project. "Our catalog currently features 14 pieces of equipment, all of which help children with disabilities achieve success by becoming more actively involved in their play, classroom and therapy settings." "It’s something worthwhile for all of us to work on a couple hours a day," said Norm Benson, Brooksby resident who has been woodworking as a hobby for 30 years. "Most of us have all the furniture we need, and this is interesting work." Benson and a number of other wood workers at Brooksby heard about the project through Brooksby’s Resident Life Director Nelda Quigley. He decided to meet with Teresa Barrow while staying at his vacation house near the Society’s headquarters in Bath, Maine. After that meeting, things just fell into place. A local manufacturer, whose father lives at Brooksby, donated the wood needed to make the boards. “It’s beautiful wood and it helps the Society because we don’t have to pay for it," said Benson. The shop at Brooksby is made up of three connected rooms, one with lockers for storage and a peg board for hanging tools and goggles, a second with worktables tools and equipment, and a third room separated by a door with a worktable and drying shelves for painting and varnishing. "It’s a beautiful shop and we have a good selection of tools," said Ron Donahue, Brooksby resident. “It’s a good feeling to work on a project and know you will help someone at the same time. We are very pleased to deliver the equipment to the schools.” Founded in 1936, Pine Tree Society (http://www.pinetreesociety.org/) provides direct service programs statewide to people with disabilities with a goal of providing them with the opportunities and means to create better lives for themselves and their families. For more information contact Danielle Baldassare, public relations coordinator at Brooksby, who provided SeniorJournal.com with this information. She can be reached 978/536-7905 or contact Teresa Barrow, director of The Kids’ Project, 207/443-3341; kidsproject@pinetreesociety.org.  Carver Gets Bird on White House Christmas Tree
John Chase, 84, a resident at Brooksby, is a Wildfowl Carver. One of his carvings, an eastern bluebird, was chosen to be on the White House Christmas tree last year.  "For 20 years, I have been carving birds," said Chase. "It's very gratifying to take a block of wood and to keep working on it till it looks like something."
Chase has spent hours and hours of his time on very detailed carving and then painting of various birds. Ducks, bluebirds, teals, cardinals…you name it, John carves it. |
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