In late 2022, the Oglethorpe County 4-H Club began a new community service project called ‘Students Serving Seniors’ where teens assist senior citizens in the community with small jobs inside the house or around the yard.
The four H’s of 4-H, that represent the four pillars of our great organization, Head, Heart, Hands and Health enable youth to grow and become upstanding citizens of our community. Senior Citizens, 65 years of age and older, account for 12.5% of the population of Oglethorpe County. Many Seniors in the county are physically unable to do lawn maintenance and upkeep their yards nor physically able to perform light chores around the house. This is where Oglethorpe County 4-H’ers come in.
Our 4-H Agent partnered with the Oglethorpe County Senior Center to distribute questionnaires to residents that frequent the Senior Center. The questionnaire asked residents of any needs, specific requests, and if any yard tools were available. Jobs that were suitable for 4-H’ers to help with and participate were selected. Since the first ‘Students Serving Seniors’ 4-H’ers have helped Seniors in a variety of ways such as: putting up and decorating a Christmas Tree, cutting back dead perennials and raking leaves.
While doing yardwork may sound meaningless to some, the Senior Citizens are so very grateful and appreciative of the work the students do. 4-H’ers help beautify homes and yards which in turn brings joy to Senior Citizens that we are serving. 4-H’ers learn and feel the value of hard work, a sence of accomplishment for a job well done, and the pleasure of bringing joy to others.
To date, we have visited the homes of five Senior Citizens with the help of 18 youth participants. Approximately 93 community service hours have been logged.
One of the senior citizens served wrote, “Thank you so much for helping put up my Christmas Tree. It would have taken me all weekend to put it up and decorate it. You and your 4-H’ers are a blessing and so friendly.”
If you know of a senior citizen in our community that can use helping hands, reach out to Marcus Eason at 706-743-8341.