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KEVIN GUTTING

Rob Stewart, left, compresses tree limbs into the bed of his truck during a cleanup effort on Grant Avenue in Northampton with Sam Anderson, right, and other city neighbors on Saturday.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Rob Stewart, left, Sam Anderson and Kate Freedman, all of Northampton, stack tree limbs and brush into Stewart’s truck while cleaning up storm debris at a Grant Avenue home on Saturday.

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KEVIN GUTTING

Suzanne Martinez-Dantonet, left, gets help from Northampton neighbors in removing debris outside her Grant Avenue home from trees that were damaged in the Oct. 29 snowstorm. Joining her are Joel Spiro, center, with pruners, and in background, from left, Kate Freedman, Rob Stewart, Owen Freeman-Daniels and Sam Anderson.

NORTHAMPTON - I spent Saturday morning clearing huge piles of debris and moving heavy branches that fell in the October nor'easter, and I have some scrapes to prove it. But it was a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend the morning.

A hastily-organized call for volunteers put out by acting Mayor David J. Narkewicz this week drew a couple of dozen willing workers Saturday morning, some of whom showed up with chain saws and long-handled branch-cutters. Others came with trucks. And some of us simply had willing hands.

From the organized chaos in the parking lot of Northampton High School where volunteers reported for duty, At-Large City Councilor Jesse M. Adams studied a clipboard that held the names and addresses of city residents who had called for help. The clipboard also contained the names of people who called in to say they'd be willing to help.

In short order, Adams matched up the folks who needed help with those willing and able to give it, dispatching work crews to spots around the city where debris had been languishing since the tree-damaging Oct. 29 storm.

The team I was on headed for Ward 3, where we were to clean up a debris pile at my house on Grant Avenue, another one on Lincoln Avenue, and then planned to head to wherever Adams told us to go next. From those locations, some of us moved on to Orchard Street, others to Henry Street, and still others to Franklin Street. I can only assume similar scenarios played out with other volunteer squads in other parts of the city Saturday morning.

Ward 3 City Councilor Owen Freeman-Daniels was part of the work team I was on, as were several other residents who had no debris to clean up from their yards, but who simply wanted to help out.

The branch and log pile we had stacked next to our driveway, which I had thought was moderately sized, suddenly seemed huge when we began disassembling it to put in the bed of a relatively small pickup truck. But with eight of us working, we soon filled one truck, sent it on its way to the landfill, and began filling a second, soon moving on to the home of Georgia Willis at 43 Lincoln Ave.

There we piled branches and logs into a truck belonging to the local contracting company Valley Home Improvement, which volunteered its large truck as well as a three-man crew.

"It's a nice way to help out the community" said Daniel Scheffer, of Easthampton, part of the Valley Home Improvement crew. "It's definitely important to do before the snow comes."

Willis said she was delighted when she learned a volunteer day would be devoted to storm cleanup.

"I saw it in the newspaper and I started moving everything from the yard to the curb," said Willis. "I have a Toyota Corolla, so there's no way I could get this."

After getting all the work crews out into the field, Adams showed up to help on Lincoln Avenue, fielding calls on his cell phone from other parts of the city while he was at it.

"Big job on Franklin, so we've got to put people on it," he told Freeman-Daniels after one such call.

Adams said he liked the chance the day gave him to meet people from the city.

"I don't usually get to work with people I represent on this level," he said.

Among the volunteers was city contractor Jonathan Wright, who showed up with a large Wright Builders hauling truck that seemed to fit as much debris as we could pile into it. He said he decided to volunteer Friday when Ward 4 City Councilor Pamela Schwartz asked him to, mainly because he appreciated the chance to help with the city-wide effort.

"You feel so helpless in these situations - what can you do? - so this is a way to help," said Wright. "It's something you can do."

He was saying this while he and Charlie Lotspeich, another volunteer, were working hard to rig a rope up on a large broken tree branch stuck high up in a tree so they could pull it down. Clearly it was a dangerous branch that could get knocked down in the next high wind.

With some effort, Wright and Lotspeich managed to dislodge the branch, but when it came tumbling down, it hit - and dented - the roof of Wright's truck. Wright took it all in stride.

Willis was impressed and grateful.

"Thank you so much for getting that branch down, a lot of us were worried it would fall on a car," she said.

Meanwhile, as we headed to our next stop, on Franklin, I asked Bixby Court resident Joel Spiro what drew him out. He said "it seemed like the thing to do."

He, like others in our crew, had no debris in his yard to clear out, he just felt like helping, so he showed up with a pair of branch clippers.

"It's an easy thing to make a contribution to your neighbors," he said. "It's an easy, community thing to do and it shows the spirit."

Later, Adams said the operation went smoothly, estimating volunteers cleared out about 20 locations around the city.

"As many people called to volunteer as there were jobs - some people had trucks and chain saws, and some people were able-bodied," he said. "It's real nice of everybody to do this on a Saturday morning."

He also said if the need is there, he'd be up for helping orchestrate another volunteer day.

"It was very rewarding," he said. "We got a lot done."

Laurie Loisel can be reached at lloisel@gazettenet.com.