Twenty years of Neighbors Helping
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Last years Town Benefit included activities such as a dart throw. This year events will include childrens games, a dunk tank and a Memory Tent. FILE PHOTO

It started in 1987 as a way for residents and friends to help a member of the community, who had been injured in an accident, but on Sunday the Town Benefit will be away for residents help raise money to help their neighbors.

Games, raffles, the dunk tank and other events will fill Academy Hill in Westminster on Sunday as the non-profit organization Neighbors Helping Neighbors will host the twentieth Town Benefit.

"Each year we have tried to do something a little," said Nancy Green, a member of the Neighbors Helping Neighbors board.

Green has worked with the organization for the last 15 years and has watched not only the annual Town Benefit grow but has also seen the entire organization grow as they collect more money and help more families.

The organization has helped more than 80 Westminster families pay utilities, medical and other bills as well as get back on their feet after unexpected events or just tight fiscal times. The organization will pay for everything from milk and groceries to more expensive and complex items.

FILE PHOTOS

The organization keeps to three rules as they help. The first is to help only Westminster residents and the second is to help by paying the bill or the company and not simply by giving the family money. The third rule is everyone who receives help remains anonymous.

"I just really like to be able to help people out," Green said. "I just think we are so fortunate to be able to do this."

In the beginning Green said the organization was lucky to make $3,000 during the Town Benefit, which was their only fundraiser. She said that was about enough to help one family.

Now the organization collects money throughout the year and is able to help multiple families. This year the group gave out $35,000.

"We can help any number of families. It is just amazing," Green said.

So far this organization has given $181,000 to help families in the past 20 years, she said.

As the group is working to collect money they have been recording the events for posterity and this year one of the areas on Academy Hill will hold a Memory Tent. It will include 17 years of photos, a history of the logo and the placemats that decorate local eateries.

The photos will also show one of the more unusual events in the group as used to raise money … the Cow Drop Contest, which was used during many years in the 1990s.

"It was very popular in the '90s," Green said.

The Cow Drop Contest allowed residents to bet on certain squares on a grid laid out across part of the hill. The winner of the contest was the resident who bet on the square the cows first dropped "something" in.

"We stopped that because it was an incredible amount of work," Green said. "I have to say that was the most bizarre thing we ever tried and we did it for several years."

This year the group has started a shuttle bus service from the elementary school parking lot because they have added more events and reduced the parking area on the Hill.

"We've just expanded what we do," Green said. "This year the area is much bigger."

The Village Inn is providing the van and the Ashburnham-Westminster Rotary Club is in charge of driving it.

"I'm amazed now at the number of people that attend and participate and that know about it," Green said.

She said she remembers when she joined the board in 1992, they had to tell everyone about the organization and had to do a lot of promotion.

"Now they all know what it is all about. They just thank us for having this organization," she said.

Green remembers people that any money they give to the organization "may very well help out there neighbor."