Paint Job: Local Students Help Spruce Up Common

You may have noticed something slightly different near the Common. If you have a keen sense of observation, you know it's the new fence in front of the Historical Society building.

Actually, it's not a new fence. It's the same fence as before, painted by student volunteers.

About 20 members of North Andover High School’s Community Service Connection gathered to scrape and paint that fence facing the Common and making minor repairs to the fence where necessary.

"I feel great when I volunteer... I just really enjoy it," said NAHS junior Emily Lynch.

Juniors Erik Hollenbeck and Christos Lemonias started the Community Outreach Division last year to give students more opportunities to help out in the community.

And they have help from local businesses.

"We are so grateful to the North Andover businesses for their support," Hollenbeck said. "We couldn’t have done this without them. White Street Paint donated paint, Butcher Boy helped us out with some plastic containers for paint and Stachey’s kept us going with some great pizza."

Community Service Connection has three initiatives: community outreach, teacher helpers and donation coordination.

Students participating in the fence painting included: Erik Hollenbeck, Daniel Villalba, Joe Cataldo, Cathy Zhang, Rachel Damian, Emily Lynch, Christos Lemonias, Jessie Morin, Paige Rodrigues, Patrick O’Connor, Victor Kogan, Christine O’Connor and several others.