Melrose High School students help fill volunteer gap to shovel snow for senior citizens
MELROSE - With a snowstorm potentially hitting the Northeast this weekend, some older residents in Melrose are getting some shoveling assistance from local students. It's a service that almost didn't happen.
In recent years, the Melrose Council on Aging ran a program called the Melrose Angels. It pairs a volunteer with a senior in need of shoveling. Volunteer numbers have been dwindling. Last year, they had 90 people looking for help, but only 12 volunteers.
"We had the unfortunate task of telling some people it wasn't available," said Erica Brown, Executive Director of the Melrose Council on Aging. "The Council on Aging takes a lot of phone calls every day, and that was kind of a common request that people are looking for in these services."
They almost closed the program this year before handing volunteer recruitment duties to the high school. Now 25 students are jumping in to help with this weekend's storm. Seniors are urged to contact the school to help pair them up with a volunteer.
"This year it seems through better access and communication, they have been able to recruit much more volume," said Brown. "They have agreed to take on both aspects of the recruiting process."
"This will lessen the amount of work they have to do," said Eric Jiang, a freshman at Melrose High School, and one of the volunteers. "I have a coat, hat, and gloves that I wear specifically for [shoveling]."
The high school says they will be pairing volunteers with seniors in need who live close to them.
"We kind of stressed that this should be for folks who don't have other resources, or don't have family or friends who live nearby," adds Brown.