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Jul 3, 2009 10:23 pm US/Eastern
Sun Didn't Deter Seniors From Volunteering
DAVIE (CBS4) ―
The sun beat down on the Old Davie School Friday afternoon but a group of seniors did not run for shade.
Five seniors -- including 3 military veterans -- continued cutting, cleaning and laying bricks for a new wall in the school's garden.
For them, the manual labor is a holiday from all their relaxing.
"When you're retired you don't get holidays," 83-year-old Richard Postlethwaite told CBS 4's Carey Codd. "If you can't find something to do on a holiday, what do we do? We sit around and don't do anything. This is much more fun."
It gives Postlethwaite a way to give back. He has been doing that ever since he joined the Air Force at the tail end of World War Two and fought in the Korean War a few years later. With an easy laugh and a tireless work ethic, Postlethwaite, along with his wife Ethel, believes serving the community is a requirement.
"We feel that we owe something," Postlethwaite said. "We have been very lucky. We live in a pretty doggone nice world."
While the Postlethwaite's brushed the donated bricks to clean them, the husband and wife team of Dick and Barbara McCall took turns laying the bricks into place. The couple are part of the Old Davie School's Historical Society. On a day when many people lounged on the beach or relaxed with friends, Dick McCall said working up a sweat for a good cause is the perfect way to spend the day.
"Why not do something that's helpful?" Dick McCall said. "This will be something that will help the community, help the school and stop some lawsuits from people falling off the edge (of the walkway)."
86-year-old Clifford Lloyd busily cut bricks to fill in the gaps in the wall. Lloyd and the others are used to working hard to preserve Davie's history. Surrounding the campus is the evidence of the group's efforts, including a historic home the five volunteers and others worked three years to restore.
Lloyd points to his three years in the South Pacific during World War II and the country's response to the threats of fascism as proof of a time when Americans sacrificed for a common purpose.
"World War II, everyone pulled together," Lloyd said. "They didn't have to ask people to do anything they just did it."
Just like the five seniors who joined together at the Old Davie School in the hot, mid-afternoon sun Friday to work for free and give back to their community. Their toil was a form of patriotism, a way to make their community better.
"We enjoy doing this because we can come by two or three months from now or two years from now and see this and say look what we did," Postlethwaite said. "If we don't it's gonna disappear and our grandkids and their kids aren't gonna know what happened here in Davie."
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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