Community Group Helps Area Residents With Yard Maintenance

BURLINGTON, MA — Through almost all weather since mid-May, a group of more than two dozen volunteers has regularly gathered to help area residents take care of their yards and properties free of charge.

Operating as “the Burlington Lawn Mowers Dream Team,” the group's volunteers range in age from 12-years-old to 65, supporting close to 70 families and individuals in all of Burlington and parts of Billerica, Woburn, and Wilmington. Clients include people who are elderly, single parents or veterans. Clients also include people who have injuries or disabilities and people who are experiencing financial troubles.

“Everyone cares about helping others,” group founder Jay Barnes said of his volunteers in a recent interview with Patch. “That’s why they’re here.”

Barnes grew up in Burlington before later moving to Malden. He spent time in Virginia and Oklahoma, where he lived in Chickasha, Oklahoma from March, 2018 to November, 2018 before returning to Burlington in December of 2018.

Barnes’ Burlington Dream Team is actually his second such venture after he helped launch the Chickasha Dream Team in Chickasha. Having seen a need in Oklahoma, Barnes said he similarly reached out on local Facebook groups in the Burlington/Woburn area last year, where he found a response of individuals seeking help.

“It took people a little bit to really believe there wasn’t any scam, that this was really happening,” Barnes said.

Once that happened, though, even more responses came, now leaving the team with a busy schedule of clients receiving services.

The team helps clients and returns to homes on a regular basis to help mow lawns, manage weeds and more. Volunteers are mostly from Burlington, though Barnes said he also draws on individuals from Woburn, Wilmington and Billerica.

Residents receiving services sign a short contract with the Burlington Dream Team, in part attesting that they do not currently have a landscaper. That, Barnes said, is part of a desire to avoid taking jobs from local landscapers.

“It’s been going pretty smoothly,” Barnes said of the process.

Barnes was recently at the home of Hilary Bailey in Billerica on a job with volunteer Graham Mann. Childhood friends, Barnes and Mann were helping maintain an area that the Dream Team mowed earlier this year.

Bailey said she bought the property back in 1997, expanding it to add fencing and adopt various animals, including a goat and a pony over the years.

Now living alone and experiencing issues related to multiple back injuries, Bailey said she had struggled to maintain the property, which no longer houses its former animal residents.

The grass in Bailey’s pasture-area had grown up to four-feet in height before the Dream Team arrived to help, she said.

“If they hadn’t helped me, the grass was just growing and growing and there was really nothing I could do,” Bailey said.

Bailey sat on her back porch during the Dream Team’s recent visit, sitting with her dog Larry and conversing with both Barnes and Mann. She said she’s enjoyed talking with the volunteers, adding that she appreciates their help.

The Burlington Dream Team will continue its work through early November. The group needs more volunteers, though, Barnes said.

Volunteers do not need any landscaping experience. Anyone interested should simply reach out by email or Facebook at Jay.B.Barnes@gmail.com. While most of the Dream Team’s clients arrive through word of mouth, individuals potentially needing services can reach out to Barnes through email or Facebook.