EVERETT — A handful of strangers showed up Saturday morning at Gail Chism’s house in Everett’s Lowell neighborhood.
They set to pulling weeds, cutting back overgrown brush, raking leaves and generally cleaning up the 70-year-old’s yard. Within an hour, they had created a pile of trimmings, clippings and other yard waste that was about the size of a small car.
“That’s the fruit of our labors,” Bobby Gall said.
The 26-year-old was one of 10 volunteers at the cleanup, which was organized by Catholic Community Services.
He isn’t Catholic.
He is actually on staff at Everett’s Bible Baptist Church, where leaders challenged staff “to get out and build relationships in the community,” he said.
Gall looked online for volunteer opportunities and found this one.
“It’s good to get out and work a little bit,” he said. “Fortunately, the rain held off.”
Going online to recruit volunteers was an experiment, said Richard Porter, the volunteer coordinator for Catholic Community Services. “A lot of these people haven’t met each other before.”
Typically, he works with groups of volunteers from churches and local businesses, he said.
He listed the event online and put up posters around Everett. Based on the strong response, he plans to try the approach again in a few months, he said.
He has volunteers come by Chism’s place a couple times a year, the 29-year-old said.
“They’ve just been wonderful!” she said.
At 70, yard work is difficult.
Weeds and leaves have taken over parts of her yard amid the kitchen sink, rescued signs, knickknacks and curios that fill her yard.
Her home’s interior, though, is in perfect order. She’s lived here since 1964, a couple years after Everett annexed the community.
Since moving in, she has been a fixture of the former mill community; so much so that she is called the ‘Queen of Lowell’ and one of her home’s front rooms is a de facto Lowell museum. She helped write the book on Lowell’s 150 year history. Chism even has her own entry on Historylink.org, the online encyclopedia of Washington history.
The neighborhood, which is tucked between the Snohomish River and I-5, has changed a lot since Chism moved here as a 19-year-old. But it is still a vibrant community, having survived the mill’s closing and being cut in two by the highway.
She is still active in the community. “I try to give back where I can,” she said. Last Christmas, she and friends collected gifts and other donations for a family that couldn’t afford to celebrate the holiday.
Catholic Community Services has been helping Chism keep up her home since 2010.
“It’s such a blessing going from overwhelmed to hallelujah,” Chism said.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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