Dorothy Lombardi and her mutt-dog Chipper wake each morning in her white South Milwaukee ranch to greet the sun as it peeks over the horizon.

She picks up one of nine rakes she has and gets to work. The large oak tree, brimming with deep purple foliage, lets go of a few dozen leaves each time the wind blows. Though it hasn’t released more than half its leaves this year, Dorothy’s lawn is a mishmash of all the colors of the rainbow except green.

The tree is something she debates cutting down each year.

“I’m old,” she said, “and it’s so much work to rake the leaves each year.”

For the last 10 years, students and community volunteers have helped Dorothy and other seniors prepare for the cold, wet snow to come, a process Laurie Marks, director of the Center for Volunteerism and Student Leadership, called “winterizing.”

“It went great, biggest RAK-a-thon we ever done,” Marks said. “We’ve helped out so many people and we’ve already started to get thank you notes saying students are great and courteous and helpful.”

When freshmen Cassie Motta and Heena Dhyhani and sophomore Amanda Cichanski arrived at Dorothy’s house, they saw several small piles of leaves she had already swept. The white-haired 80-year-old woman, who is slightly hunched over and walks with a small gimp in her step, greets the girls.

“This is so kind of you to do. But don’t you have anything better to do on a Saturday morning?” she said.

As the girls worked, Dorothy reminded them to “neatly” place the leaves in the gutter for the city to collect.

“But leave a space for the walkway. I keep a neat house.”

Dorothy said last year University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students helped her prepare for winter as well.

“They’re always so nice.”

Adeline Zobrack is another senior who lives a few blocks from Dorothy. She had the girls wash the outside windows before cleaning them.

“Thank you again,” she said to the girls. “You know, I’m thinking of selling my house … it’s just too much work to keep up.”

Motta said she had a “great time” volunteering for the RAK-a-thon, or random acts of kindness, and will do it again next year.

“I’ve always just kind of felt like I wanted to help the community as much as possible,” Motta said. “I’m always looking for little opportunities to help in my spare time … I may as well give it back to other people.”

The best part of volunteering for the RAK-a-thon was being able to see the difference volunteers were making, Motta said.

“It was great to actually meet who we were helping,” she said. “You can see obviously why they needed help, I enjoyed it a lot.”

More than 325 students registered to participate and close to that number arrived at the Union on Saturday, Nov. 5, for the 5th annual RAK-a-thon. Students raked leaves, trimmed shrubbery and cleaned windows at the homes of more than 60 seniors.

Marquette University also sent students to winterize homes.

“I have a soft spot for seniors,” said MU senior Brian Granneman. “When I was a kid, I used to go to nursing homes all the time and read to them and play checkers. I figure I’ll be old someday I would hope that good karma would come back for me.

“Every time a senior dies, a library burns to the ground. It’s more interesting than anything to hear stories first hand from people who were actually involved in it than reading facts in a textbook.”

> Comments