Fred Hoffmeister needed a better way to help his wife of 62 years, Sandi, get down the stairs outside their home.
The 82-year-old couple owned a bed and breakfast in Franklin for 20 years but retired and moved to Hill six years ago. In 2023, Sandi was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and taking care of her became more difficult each day for Fred — especially since she became wheelchair bound.
“Trying to get her down the stairs was just too hazardous to do,” Fred said.
When Fred learned that a group of young people were coming to the Franklin area to do home improvement projects, he jumped at the chance to apply for a ramp to be built in front of their house.
A few weeks later, six high school students came to the Hoffmeister home and worked on the project for several hours, five days in a row. Panels of wood and power tools were strewn across the grass during the week, but the crew constructed the ramp piece by piece into the exact structure that Fred needed.
“It was really fun,” Fred said. “I spoke with them each day and they were just busy working. It was so hot, but they hung in there.”
The work was coordinated by the faith-based youth organization workcampNE, which came to Franklin the week of July 21 to offer several residents free home repairs, from tiling roofs to painting houses to building decks. Eighty children aged 10 to 18 came from all over the country to visit Franklin, Manchester and Littleton this year.
Marcia Therrien, a longtime director of the Litchfield-based camp, said groups go to many locations in the northeast for one month in the summer and have gone to Franklin twice in the last three years.
“It’s just an amazing experience,” Therrien said. “The sense of community in Franklin, driven from the schools and some of the social agencies, is really remarkable.”
In both visits, Franklin Middle School housed the work crews and provided meals throughout the week. Superintendent Dan LeGallo said working with the group has been a great experience and the feedback from the community has been very positive.
“It’s just a wonderful thing for the residents in need,” LeGallo said. “It can be life-changing for some of them.”
Brian Landry, 69, an Army veteran who has lived in Franklin since 2009, has had issues with flooding in his basement since he moved to the city. Every year, snow from the winter melted and flooded Landry’s basement to his knees, which called for rubber boots to be put on every morning.
Landry said he learned about workcampNE through Meals on Wheels and requested a sealant around his basement floor. He described the campers that helped him as “courteous, polite and respectful.”
“It was like I had known them for quite a while,” Landry said. “I actually miss them now that they’re gone. I’ll always cherish it as a very good memory for the rest of my life and I’ll never forget about them.”
Edna Nault, 76, has lived in Northfield for over 20 years and needed a new deck in her backyard as well as her house painted. She recalled a moment when one of the campers saw her husband, Jim, experiencing medical issues and the young girl went back to the group and started a prayer circle for him.
“It’s awesome that the kids are out there thinking about other people besides themselves,” Nault said. “It tells me they’re well brought up.”
While the group mainly recruits kids from Christian churches across the United States, Therrien said the organization does not force their beliefs onto any of the people they help.
“We consider it like a free gift to the community,” Therrien said.
Therrien said they may not come back to Franklin next year, as they try to have their campers visit different cities and towns every year, but would love to come back soon.
Fred said his wife, Sandi, developed cancer recently and now needs to go to oncology appointments in Concord three times a week. Without the ramp, Fred said, it would have been impossible to make those trips.
“They’re really dedicated people,” Fred said.
