Spontaneous acts of kindness

YULAN, NY — Gabriella Paolini is no stranger to the elderly and infirm. The 13-year-old has often accompanied her mother, Rose, on visits that involve the care of such folks.

While Rose was working for the Sullivan County Office for the Aging and delivering meals on wheels, she met Peggy Stutz of Beaver Brook, a former Eldred schoolteacher. In 1982, after her husband Charles had passed away, Stutz returned to her family’s property on Blind Pond Road, where she was born.

Rose has continued to help the 87-year old woman, often taking her care beyond the official terms that she originally followed. It’s a good thing because Peggy Stutz needs more than just meals.

Suffering from short-term memory loss and malnourishment, the otherwise lively and intelligent Stutz would often forget to take her medication. Rose’s visits became a daily occurrence, and her teenage daughter would often come along to help. It didn’t take long for Gabriella to notice that the property was overrun with cats, and that years of untended brush and bamboo growth obscured the view from Stutz’s windows. So the teen decided to do something about the situation.

First on the list was the cat problem. While Stutz was enamored of her own pet cat, Aribella, a gift from Dr. Schwalb in Jeffersonville, NY that replaced one that had passed away, she was besieged by countless strays of feral cats on the road. Capturing the cats and delivering them to the humane society in Deer Park took much of Gabriella’s time and guile. The cats were used to racing inside the poor old woman’s house as soon as she would open the door. Thanks to Gabriella, only Ari remains.

Knowing that Stutz’s other love of life revolved around her silent communion with nature, the teen decided to chop down rampant overgrowth to reveal a perfectly unobstructed view of the lovely greenery and flowers that abound nearby.

No one asked her to do it. She simply got up one day, and without a word, she proceeded to the arduous task. To look at Stutz’s property now, one would not recognize the once neglected landscape.

Fond of art and especially ceramic crafts, the eighth grader decided that Stutz’s mailbox could be transformed from a rusty artifact into a replica of her dear Ari. So Gabriella took to painting it black and attaching emerald green glass eyes, ears, feet, whiskers and a tail. Now when Stutz crosses the road to get her mail, she has a daily reminder that she is not alone.

“I just felt it was the right thing to do. There are people who are in need and you’ve just got to help. My mom has taken care of other elderly people. I just want to help now too,” Gabriella said.

It’s an ethos that could well be contagious among teens. First they need to become more aware of what needs to be done and then have structured programs to give them the chance to act on that knowledge.

Gabriella has decided that this is what should be done with some of the funds raised by Sullivan Renaissance. “We should be helping people, not just trying to beautify our communities,” she said.

She’s right. After all a community is not just about the environs, it’s about people.

This week’s youth in focus is a young artist, a humanitarian and Yulan’s first female fire cadet. Following in the footsteps of her mother, Sullivan County’s first female firefighter and a person devoted to community service, Gabriella, named for the archangel Gabriel, seems destined for a life of service to others.