GILFORD — A group of volunteers from the Gilford Rotary Club help to transform a seldom-used area of open space at the Wesley Woods retirement village into a small park.
The work party spent about 3½ hours last Monday raking loam, spreading grass seed, and then covering the 40-foot by 48-foot area with straw.
A $1,000 anonymous donation was used to purchase and plant a hawthorn tree, which in time will provide lots of shade in the area called Wesley Park, according to John Cosgriff, a Wesley Woods resident, who along with many others, helped plan and coordinate the project.
Shelley Carita, a member of the Gilford Rotary Club who helped to recruit volunteers and oversaw the work, said the park will be a real benefit because it will give Wesley Woods residents a place to relax outside.
“We don’t have the muscle power,” they once did, Cosgriff said with a chuckle, explaining why the Rotarians’ involvement was so important.
He also said the project was a real morale booster for the retirement community’s residents, who have struggled in various ways with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Within the last six months we’ve had a lot of negativity,” Cosgriff said. “Here was something we could do that was positive.”
– Michael Mortensen
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