D-S Football Players Volunteer at Woodhaven

The Dover-Sherborn High School football team put down their pigskins and picked up some pickaxes, shovels and rakes to do some landscaping at the Woodhaven Senior Living Facility in Sherborn on Saturday.

Woodhaven resident and chair of the Landscape Committee Joan Rothney, said, “We wouldn’t have been able to do this without them. There is no way.”

Rothney said the students worked on three projects throughout the day:

They worked on clearing a garden behind Building One along a stonewall that had become covered by brush, raking and clearing a half-acre meadow behind Building Two that was also once a garden and preparing the area around a large boulder that the volunteers readied for a garden at the entrance.

Rothney said they moved the brush away from the stonewall and created a retaining wall for the compost placed by the boulder.

“They’re doing a fantastic job doing general maintenance,” she said.

Rothney said Woodhaven has a limited budget and there are only three or four women “of a certain age” that maintain the grounds and that they do the best they can. So the boys extra help was much appreciated.

“This is awesome, is all I can say,” she said. 

Rothney said she and other residents plan to plant daffodils along the stonewall and by the boulder within the next three weeks.

She said that D-S head football coach Joe Schotland and the players arrived at noon and Schotland organized the students into groups to tackle the individual projects. 

Approximately a dozen parents of players joined in to help work as well.

Rothney said some fathers came with chainsaws to cut down small trees and tree limbs.

“This is a large project and they are giving us professional work,” said Rothney. 

Dowse Orchards in Sherborn provided compost for the volunteers to spread throughout the property.

Sherborn resident Sue Tyler loaned her 6’x8’ trailer and filled it six feet high with compost.

Schotland said almost the entire team was able to show up Saturday.

He said the community has given so much to him in his first two months as the new head football coach and he wanted to try and return the favor.

He spoke with Jeanne Guthrie at the Sheborn Town Hall about doing a volunteer project in town and she came back to him with the Woodhaven project. 

Schotland said he enjoyed seeing the students bond during their work at Woodhaven.

Chair of the Elder Housing Committee Polly Leland called Guthrie, “the General,” as Guthrie instructed the athletes and helped move tree limbs around the meadow.

Guthrie said, “I did what was needed. The kids were receptive and the coach was great.”

Peter Brockway, father of football captain Kyle Brockway, said, “It’s been great, lots of participation and enthusiasm.”

“Several times this afternoon, and I’m not the only one, I’ve been close to tears,” said Leland.