He’s happiest working on issues close to his heart.  Sometimes that has 85-year-old Jerry Webster traipsing through the weeds at the edge of a lake or wandering through neighborhoods inspecting storm drains.  As an volunteer with RSVP’s Across Generations program, he combines his two interests: working with young people and protecting the environment.

Since 1993, Webster has volunteered with RSVP’s Across Generations, a program which pairs adults over 55 with elementary school classrooms in St. Paul.  The adults work with the children on environmental issues and accompany them into the community for environmental service learning.

“I’ve always liked youth, being a teacher and so forth; I’ve always liked working with them,” Webster says. He was first a teacher, then a superintendent in rural southwestern Minnesota until he moved to the Twin Cities to complete a Ph.D. in educational administration. He then worked as an administrator in the Minnesota Department of Education. Webster visits two classrooms each week to help students learn about urban stewardship.

Webster feels it’s very important that kids become aware of the environment. “They have to realize how we’re polluting the world, using fertilizer with phosphorous in it that grows algae in the lakes, that takes away the oxygen and kills the fish; leaves and grass cuttings that go down the drains—there are a lot of things they can do in their homes to stop this,” he emphasized.

Through the years Webster has worked with students on many projects, from cleaning storm drains and stenciling anti-pollution messages on them to picking up trash and debris around area lakes. His favorite project was native plant restoration at Lake Phalen and other lakes. “We planted seedlings of different kinds of grasses. It’s interesting now to go back and see how they have grown,” he says.

Volunteering is an occupation Webster cherishes; he has been volunteering since he retired in 1982. In addition to RSVP’s Across Generations, he volunteers teaching ESL at Roseville Adult High School. He says he gets a lot of satisfaction from helping others.

“What else is there to do? I want to keep busy, I don’t want to vegetate,” he laughs.