'They gave my mother back her dignity'

You can read in the newspapers any given day about the things that young adult males do that are wrong, but I think it is necessary to announce the help that a group of Fremd High School students gave to an elderly lady.

The Fremd men's swim team donated their time and efforts recently to the community paint-a-thon. These students and volunteers did more than I ever expected. My mother's house had peeling paint, weeds overgrowing the front and basically needed a lot of tender loving care.

Since my father passed away, the house needed a lot more than my mother could afford to have done, and a lot more than I could do myself.

These students gave my mother more than just their efforts and a beautiful house. They gave my mother back her dignity. Her house looks better than it has for many years. The students scraped, primed, painted and planted flowers. These men worked for hours in the sun, doing what we could not do ourselves.

The words THANK YOU seem to express so little to these wonderful volunteers. Their work means so much to both my mother and me.

I would also like to thank Valspar Paint for donating the paint the students used, Garibaldi's pizza for donating pizzas for the students to eat and J&D Landscaping for volunteering to remove the weeds from the front of the house.

It is really a community of volunteers who came together to make this happen. Thank you one and all. Your efforts will not be forgotten. Every time we look at the house, we will be reminded of your kindness.

Shirley Kobler

Arlington Heights