The Perry Village PITCH In program plans to hold an organizational meeting in January to prepare for helping residents in 2025 with tasks or chores inside or outside of their homes. Rick Walker, who serves as the PITCH In Administrative Committee chairman, said the date, time and location of the meeting will be announced in the near future. That meeting will bring together PITCH In committee members and volunteers to talk about the group’s goals for the new year. “And we’ll invite Perry Township trustees, so that they understand a little bit more about us, and can help us find more volunteers,” Walker said. In October, trustees provided PITCH In with authorization to perform projects in Perry Township. Before trustees made that decision, PITCH In had limited its services to Perry Village. PITCH In is an all-volunteer program founded about 5 1/2 years ago by Walker, who also is a member of Perry Village Council; and Jean Schonauer, who serves as the Village Council president. The first word in the program’s name stands for Perry Investing Toward Community Help. It was decided to add the word “In” to create a phrase that would attract attention and be easy to remember. Before going out into the community to perform projects, Walker and Schonauer sharpened the description of what the program is intended to do; developed an application and review and approval process for people who seek help through the program; and decided how to recruit and screen volunteers. PITCH In conducted its first project in May of 2021 when volunteers spruced up the yard of a woman’s home on Manchester Road in Perry Village. Since that time, some of the projects that volunteers have carried out in Perry Village include washing windows, lawn mowing and yard maintenance, cleaning gutters, shoveling snow and walking a dog. Residents who contact the service for help typically can’t do yardwork, house cleaning or home-maintenance projects because of medical- or age-related limitations. During the Dec. 12 Perry Village Council meeting, Walker provided an update on a couple of recent PITCH in projects. A woman who lives on Middle Ridge Road contacted them and said she needed her driveway plowed after the recent severe winter storm. Walker said he contacted Moreno Landscaping, which plowed the woman’s driveway free of charge. Another PITCH In project took place on Padre Pio Lane in Perry Village, Walker said. For that endeavor, volunteer Carmen Tibaldi shoveled a resident’s walkway. Walker noted that they also have gotten appeals for projects “that aren’t in line with what our volunteer pool can do.” Some of those initiatives have included tuckpointing windows and fixing a broken railing. “PITCH In isn’t here for that yet,” he said. “Hopefully we can be at some point.” The goup also raked leaves and performed yard cleanups for residents during the fall. Walker said some of those same clients will ask for yard cleanups after winter concludes. “People that we have helped will say, ‘Hey will you come back in the spring?’ And of course we will,” Walker said.