Westfield resident John Samel watched Westfield State University students work hard at clearing brush from his yard.
Westfield State University students Sam Streisand, of Sudbury, and Lauren Rechel, of East Lyme, Conn., haul away broken branches while cleaning storm debris from the yard of an elderly couple as part of a Westfield State University community service program Friday.WESTFIELD – John Samel watched through the window as university students cleared fallen limbs and brush from his back yard Friday and had good feelings about their generation.
“I am 95 years old and I have worked hard all my life. I can see they are working hard. That’s not just words,” Samel said.
Matthew R. Barry, Lauren Rechel and Sam Streisand were working at the Samels’ property as part of a Westfield State University community service learning project.
This project was designed recently as a way to give the students some work in the community while helping senior citizens who would have a tough time themselves moving all the limbs and other brush left in their yards after the Oct. 29-30 snowstorm.
Throughout Friday morning and afternoon, 34 students who belong to the Circle K organization on campus took part in this work at several homes around Westfield.
Circle K is a community service club founded at Westfield State in 1970 as part of the international network of the Kiwanis clubs.
Kenneth Magarian, the director of advancement and college relations at Westfield State, serves as adviser to the club and directed the brush clearing Friday.
“We had a good afternoon. There were some people with an awful lot of stuff to clear. We are all exhausted,” Magarian said in the late afternoon when the work was done and calls of thanks were coming to his office from some of the grateful people served.
Barry, a criminal justice major at the university, said it might be unusual for college students to do this kind of work on a holiday but he saw it as an opportunity to help and to learn.
“You meet all kinds of people in these projects,” Barry said.
Rechel, a psychology major, said she likes to hear their viewpoints when she works on a community service project with senior citizens and she appreciates that this work gives her a chance to connect with an older generation.
Streisand said that being able to help people, especially elderly people do things they might find difficult, has been an important part of his experience at Westfield State, where he is studying sociology.
Magarian said community service has been an objective at Westfield State since the school was founded in the 1830s, and the current president, Evan S. Dobelle, has put strong emphasis on it.
The 90 students who participate in Circle K activities have worked in residential neighborhoods as well as in downtown Westfield and other communities throughout New England.