Thanks to an Evanston Commission on Aging program, senior citizens now can enlist the help of volunteers for their yard work.

Elderly residents who are disabled and no longer able to rake their own leaves or mow their own lawns are matched with the names and contact numbers of volunteers who have expressed interest in the program.

“We give the senior a few numbers so they can see which people are best suited for him,” said Joan Barott, secretary of Evanston’s Department of Health and Human Services. “Some people volunteer and charge a small fee, but it’s really between the volunteer and them.”

Joan Hickman, who lives in a townhouse in south Evanston, has used the service to find hired help for her yard.

“It’s made a big difference, really,” said Hickman, who is in her late 60s. Hickman is not disabled, but she said yard maintenance “takes more energy than I’m willing to put out.”

Hickman tried two or three volunteers from the program before she found someone whose schedule fit with hers. She said she has hired the same man for about two years.

“I’m reasonably satisfied with the man I have now,” Hickman said. “He cuts the grass and he rakes the leaves in the fall.”

Barott began the senior citizen yard service, which currently involves about 10 seniors and eight to 10 volunteers, two years ago after she saw similar programs in surrounding suburbs.

“It’s a very small program,” Barott said. “It’s like word of mouth — you get a little bit of information and you go from there.”

She explained that many senior citizens do not use the service because they have relatives or neighbors that help them.

“A lot of the times you have a neighbor who will do (yard work) for (seniors),” Barrott said. “There are some very nice people that do this and don’t think anything of it.”

The program attempts to match seniors according to their needs and location, but a few volunteers have found it difficult to make it to seniors’ houses.

“I hope they get more people because some of the spots are just too far,” said Patrick Casey, a southeast Evanston volunteer who lives on Hinman Avenue. A senior citizen who receives social security, Casey said he decided to volunteer because he had some free time. “It’s good to get out and get some fresh air, and some people pay if they have a large yard. That’s handy because it’s tough living on social security.”

In the winter, Barott said the program expands to include seniors who need help shoveling snow.

Catherine Pelech, a south Evanston resident, said she decided to sign up to volunteer for the program last winter because she thought it was a good way to teach her 5-year-old and 9-year-old children about helping their neighbors.

“It’s a great idea,” Pelech said. “There should be more people — more kids — involved.”

Reach Mansi Patel at [email protected].