Armed with buckets and bailers, hoes and sickles, 100 elderly residents of Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township Old Bridge Landscape Volunteer Association set off from Ox Pen Riverside Park to carry out a clean-up operation upstream and downstream of Dongan Old Bridge. The volunteers first set about removing weeds and cleaning up litter, and then began planting trees, flowers and plants. To date, the group has planted more than 3,000 specimens. The volunteers did not put their feet up during the Lunar New Year holiday period and took turns to patrol the area and water and tend to the plants and trees. Their strenuous efforts have breathed new life into the picturesque environs of the famous Dongan Old Bridge and Ox Pen River.
The association’s president, Wang Yu-lien, says the association was mainly born out of the enthusiasm of association chief executive Chen Su-hsiang and other local residents. Wang says she simply responded to their appeals and formerly established the association on Jan. 20.
Almost all of the association’s volunteers are of the same hue: “gray-haired retirees,” and the number of “younger” over-50-year-olds can be counted on one hand, says Wang, adding that, “Before establishing the association, I had never touched a hoe or a sickle: I was completely clueless about horticulture.”
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報記者黃美珠
“Everyone clubbed together with the same sense of purpose and community spirit; even though we are using buckets and bailers brought from our homes to do the watering, we feel rich in health and are happy to be helping to make Guansi Township a more beautiful place,” Wang says.
(Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones)
新竹縣關西鎮一百名退休銀髮族合組「關西鎮古橋景觀志工協會」，大家自己帶著水桶、水瓢、鋤頭、鐮刀等工具，自動自發在東安古橋上、下游的牛欄河親水公園，從除雜草、清垃圾開始，再一棵棵種下樹木、花草，迄今超過三千棵！就連春節也每天有人輪流巡守、澆灌照料，使得本已名聞遐邇的東安古橋、牛欄河畔風光，因為他們的熱血和汗水而更加閃耀。
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報黃美珠
協會理事長王玉蓮說，這個志工團主要是由執行長陳素香等熱心鄉親所發起，她只是響應號召，於今年一月二十日正式成立協會。
她說，這個協會成員清一色都是退休後的銀髮族，只有屈指可數是年過半百的「年輕人」。在加入前，她沒拿過鋤頭、鐮刀，對種樹種花更是一無所知。
大家因為有志一同而聚在一起，即便是替花草樹木澆水，用的都是從自己家帶去的水桶、水瓢，但依舊開心能因此「賺健康」、「賺到更美麗的關西」！
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Liberty Times 照片：自由時報黃美珠
（自由時報記者黃美珠）
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