Fred Proulx, who will soon turn 81, worked for almost 40 years at United Shoe Machinery Company in Beverly. But don’t let his long tenure with USM fool you: Fred is a renaissance man, and in his work as a volunteer at the Cape Ann Discovery Center at Ravenswood Park in Gloucester, he is a greeter, a guru, a handyman, and an educator.
Fred got his start as a volunteer shortly after retirement. “I was sitting at home staring at the wall,” he says, “and my daughter called me up to tell me about an ad in the paper. Something she thought I’d like.” Fred responded to the ad – a position as a volunteer ranger at Plum Island. In this work – connecting people to the outdoors – Fred found a calling. He went on to volunteer at the Trustees’ Appleton Farms, and then joined Trustees educator Ramona Latham at the Cape Ann Discovery Center at Ravenswood Park. “I love the variety,” he says, “I meet all kinds of people. You never know who will walk through that door.”
The door Fred refers to welcomes Ravenswood Park visitors into a cozy former chapel, with high ceilings, a small kids’ discovery room, displays on local history and ecology, and staff eager to help visitors better understand the surrounding landscape. The Center - now in its first year of operation – is full of Fred’s attentive and imaginative work. Just out the back windows hang birdfeeders that he made out of downed limbs. A display on woodland ecology – another of Fred’s creations – stands by the small woodstove. But Fred’s greatest contribution to the center is his outgoing and curious nature. He simply likes to meet people – and the people he meets benefit a great deal from his warmth and his knowledge. Fred can’t hike much these days – but it’s okay, he says: “I get to meet people who are heading into the woods. By talking to them, I get to go along with them.” |
|
|
Learn More  | |
| |
|
| | |
