To the editor:

It’s amazing what a little plastic can do to help prepare a home for winter. This year the occupants of 15 homes in the Fort Dodge area will feel the benefit due to efforts coordinated by Central Iowa RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program). Working together with Fort Dodge Senior High and ICCC staff and students, RSVP staff organized community volunteers to install plastic on windows, replace weather stripping around doors, and provide new furnace filters and door sweeps, to help prepare homes for the cold winter months ahead.

This is the fourth year that RSVP has offered this activity to income-eligible persons in our community through a partnership that includes: RSVP volunteers Doug Rushton, Chair of our Advisory Council, Mary & Doug Conrad and Dennis Den Hartog. Fort Dodge Senior High teachers Andy Kavanaugh and Curtiss Tessum, along with 16 of their students, and Coach Brent Nelson and members of the Iowa Central Rugby team. We also want to thank Fort Dodge Community Foundation/United Way for its contribution in funding this project and The Messenger for the coverage of the activity in the newspaper.

RSVP is a National Service program funded through the Corporation for National and Community Service and the state of Iowa. Men and women age 55 and older are encouraged to contact us for more information on how they too can become involved in community service activities throughout Webster County. Our office number is 515-573-3477, or check us out at www.rsvpvolunteer.org.

Terri Laufersweiler

RSVP Volunteer Coordinator

Fort Dodge