Cleaning up the garden | Local News

Walter Hagedorn of Newfane gets help from Abe Deblois, 12, both of whom volunteered their time to cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

By Kristopher Radder,
Brattleboro Reformer

NEWFANE — In a quest to bring good acts into the community, Walter Hagadorn and 12-year-old Abe Deblois helped spruce up the outside of the Newfane Town Hall this week.

Hagadorn started volunteering his time to clean up the flower beds outside of the Town Hall around 2022, when he noticed the overgown gardens as the world was escaping the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I noticed that the town offices were looking kind of neglected. I was driving by, and I kept seeing that the gardens were overgrown and the weeds were taking control, and it appeared that nobody was really taking care of it, so I decided to pitch in,” said Hagadorn. “I do my civic duty and come by and started to clean out the garden beds. It’s been my yearly tradition ever since.”

But Hagadorn started to struggle a bit last year when he was doing it by himself. He said the job was getting too big for one person.

“I was feeling kind of tired, and I did this unusual thing, I prayed. I was already on my knees, and, and I did a prayer, and I’m not very religious, and I said, ‘God, you know, just give me the strength that I need today to finish what I got to do,’” said Hagadorn. “Just two minutes later, after that happened, this guy, Abe, rolls up on his scooter out of nowhere, and he just says, ‘Hey, can I help you?’”

Walter Hagedorn of Newfane gets help from Abe Deblois, 12, both of whom volunteered their time to cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Purchase local photos online.

Walter Hagedorn of Newfane gets help from Abe Deblois, 12, both of whom volunteered their time to cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Abe Deblois, 12, of Newfane, helps cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Walter Hagedorn of Newfane gets help from Abe Deblois, 12, both of whom volunteered their time to cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Abe Deblois, 12, of Newfane, helps cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Walter Hagedorn of Newfane gets help from Abe Deblois, 12, both of whom volunteered their time to cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Abe Deblois, 12, of Newfane, helps cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Walter Hagedorn of Newfane gets help from Abe Deblois, 12, both of whom volunteered their time to cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Abe Deblois, 12, of Newfane, helps cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Walter Hagedorn of Newfane gets help from Abe Deblois, 12, both of whom volunteered their time to cleanup the flower beds around the Newfane Town Hall on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

Hagadorn said it felt like God had sent him an angel to do the work. Deblois came back to help for a second year.

“I just wanted to do something with my hands, I was bored, and I was riding my scooter,” said Deblois. “I like people, helping out Walter. It’s been fun over the like, past year.”

Hagadorn says it typically takes three hours to do the initial fall or spring cleanup, and then he comes back with donated mulch for the project and maybe a few plants or flowers.

“I like to do things that makes a difference in my community,” Hagardorn said. “I am not one of those people on the side of the road with a cardboard sign complaining about things that are happening on the other side of the world that I have no control over. I want to do things that affect my community, that make a difference.”