As the winter season comes to an end, the Age Friendly South Portland team extends a sincere thank you to all those involved in our snow removal programs – to our committee members for developing the programs, to our community partners for helping us make them a reality, and to our volunteers for leading the way and providing a great service to our city’s residents.

Our longest-standing effort, the Sand Buckets for Seniors program, continued to serve over 250 residents throughout the city this winter. In partnership with the department of public works, our team of volunteers worked hard to distribute new – and constantly refill existing – five-gallon sand buckets so that residents could safely exit their homes and use critical walkways around their properties.

To continue to help residents safely navigate critical pathways and sidewalks beyond their homes, we also expanded our Community Sand Barrels program. Now located throughout the Thornton Heights, Ocean Street, and Cottage Road areas, our community sand barrels (the blue recycling bins anchored on wooden supports that are filled with sand) helped many residents as they traveled on the areas’ slippery walkways while exercising, running errands, or generally getting around by foot this winter.

Another initiative, our Snow Shoveling for Seniors program, also continued to excel in its second season. With every storm that amounted to “more than a dusting of snow,” our band of volunteers hit the streets to their designated households to clear critical walkways to oil tanks, cars, mailboxes, etc. so that our residents could carry on with their daily routines without a hitch.

A special thank you goes to our volunteer coordinator, Carol Kilroy, who carefully studied weather forecasts, mobilized volunteers in a timely fashion, and checked in with residents each storm.

Our last effort, the Golden Shovel program, which incentivizes Ocean Street businesses through competition to keep their sidewalks cleared to ensure easy navigation to their storefronts during the winter months, was yet another success. Stay tuned to learn which business is this year’s Golden Shovel winner in a future column.

All in all, we say thank you again. This winter season, though mild, was tough nonetheless as we adjusted to our second year of the pandemic. And these efforts, led by our amazing teams of committee members, partners, and volunteers, made it that much easier for our residents to get fresh air whatever the weather conditions.

As we put away our shovels and sand buckets and look ahead to warmer months, we continue to seek feedback and suggestions to inform our snow removal programs for next year. Please contact us via email at agefriendly@southportland.org.

Chad MacLeod, co-chair of Age Friendly South Portland. He can be reached at agefriendly@southportland.org.

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