Volunteers help clean up the leaves at a home in Brookhaven on Saturday.
Every year, volunteers come together for the Winter Weather Posse. The volunteer effort provides services to the elderly to help them get ready for cold, snowy months. This year, 400 volunteers came out to offer their help to residents, which Ali Keaton, one of the volunteer organizers, said is the largest number they’ve had.
Saturday marked 14 years of service. Eleanor Green, who is the main organizer said it’s an extraordinary volunteer effort, especially from students both in high school and college.
“It’s a beautiful sign of what the future holds,” she said.
Keaton did not get to lend a hand this year because of a wrist injury, but she’s been involved with the Winter Weather Posse for five years.
“There are fraternities, sororities and pharmacy students. There’s a lot of WVU Honors students and then high school students,” she said.
Preparing homes for winter can take a number of forms. Volunteers rake leaves, change batteries in smoke alarms and winterize windows to keep heat in houses.
“Morgantown has such a good community. It’s great to see us helping the elderly people because they’re just as important,” Keaton said.
She said it’s great to see so many willing to come volunteer their time. She said the groups will finish a task and ask other groups if anyone needs help at their project.
“We’ve been kind of delegating it but other people are just willing to go help people. They know they’ll be there after 12 when 12 is the deadline but they’re just willing to go and help other teams which is great,” she said.
All of the services provided to the elderly on Saturday were free of charge. Keaton said year after year more people hear about the efforts, so more people volunteer.
“There were some random people who just saw people doing it and they just joined a team, which was cool, and that was all the way out on Grafton Road,” she said.
After a long day’s work, the volunteers came back to Wesley United Methodist Church for lunch, which was donated to them.
“People just keep bringing in food that would just hear about it and then drop stuff off so that the volunteers have breakfast and then lunch, too,” she said.
Keaton said she will always participate in the Winter Weather Posse as long as she’s in Morgantown.
“It’s a lot of work and it’s early in the morning but it’s totally worth it,” she said.
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