Telstar Sophomores assist in moving local garden beds, as part of their day of service. Chaia Alford, The Bethel Citizen

BETHEL— Friday, October 8th, brought the sophomore class of Telstar out into the community for its first of two annual days of service. The students raked leaves, stacked wood, and performed other helpful services for local seniors through the AFCI – Age-Friendly Community Initiative.

The AFCI is connected to what is known as the “Handy Neighbor” program. The program provides a hotline for local seniors to call if they require help with more physically difficult tasks and covers the towns of Bethel, Gilead, Greenwood, Hanover, Newry, and Woodstock.

The work is also coordinate through the North Star program. Lyndsey Smith and Justin Bondesen, members of the Bryant Pond area North Star program, each worked with a group of students around the town. In total, 31 high schoolers were out helping the local community.

The goal of the program is, as Smith said, to help senior citizens “age in place,” allowing them to remain in their community by providing help. For the students, there is also a benefit. “It goes towards their community service hours, and removes boundaries for those who have difficulty with things like transportation,” said Smith.

Telstar students are required to have 40 hours of community service in order to graduate, and this program helps them earn those hours. The program is currently mandatory for students, but Smith said they plan to move toward volunteer only in the future.

The program is relatively new to the Telstar community. It started last fall, making this the third service day that has been had so far. This fall, a total of 18 clients were served in two days, meeting the requests of everyone who had called the hotline.

KG and Bella Petillo, both sophomores from Telstar high school, expressed gratitude for the program. KG’s favorite part of the program was the chance for “the kind of experience you get from doing actual manual labor. There’s not a lot of chances to do stuff like that since everything is so digital now.” His group was raking leaves and stacking wood.

Meanwile, Petillo’s group visited three different locations throughout the day. “I love giving back to the community, personally,” said Petillo. She has already completed her 40 hours of community service, and volunteers at the local fire department, but still enjoys the chance to get out and help people.

“I like to talk to people and find out about their situation,” she said. Both students affirmed that even if the program were to change to volunteer only, they would still be glad to participate and help the community.