Like many Aurora residents, Catherine Riddle and her grandson Thomas Swartz enjoy taking walks along the Virgil Gilman trail. During the summer months, they would often take their breakfast along on their morning stroll and stop at the train bridge to eat. Last summer, Swartz, then 9 years old, was fascinated by the windmill that sat nearby the overpass. It was often the topic of their morning conversation.
Riddle, who is raising her grandson, thought he might enjoy having a windmill in their backyard. After researching online, she found a 12-foot outdoor windmill with some assembly required.
“When the box arrived, Thomas sat guarding it until I got home,” Riddle remembers with a chuckle.
The large box was understandably heavy, but they dragged and wiggled it into the garage. Once the box was opened, Riddle was faced with hundreds of parts, including 183 nuts, bolts and screws. “I knew we were in trouble,” Riddle says.
Riddle did not know where to start. She called upon her neighbor Carlos Valdes, who helped her get the windmill started by assembling the first side. Swartz and his friend John sorted the parts and hardware into piles. As Riddle watched them work together, she realized there was a way to make this overwhelming project more manageable and a fun memory for her grandson.
Riddle reached out to the people who have been a part of her grandson’s life to help them put together their windmill, which they affectionately named the Friendmill.
The first teacher Riddle contacted was Pat Doctor, the music teacher at Freeman Elementary. Riddle, a former wedding florist, met the teacher years before when Doctor was a wedding singer.
“Cathie was a little nervous asking all of us to participate, but we were all happy to do it,” Doctor says.
Doctor, like the rest of the participants, found everything set out on the day she arrived to help. Riddle chose the next piece that needed to be put together, found all the hardware and explained the directions. Thomas worked with each guest, and Riddle snapped a picture for a scrapbook that she started to document the Friendmill project.
“Every friend who came signed the book and added the date,” says Riddle, who is still humbled at the number of people who wanted to be a part of something that was so important to her grandson.
The Friendmill grew as fast as the enthusiasm for the project. Riddle called upon friends, family, people from church and the neighborhood, all of Swartz former teachers, the librarian, the school nurse, the school custodian, the bus driver and his tutor. Even Freeman Elementary’s principal came out to help.
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“I was happy to help. Thomas is a good kid,” says Principal Mike Smith.
Although he never heard of a community project quite like this, Smith hopes it will inspire someone else.
“Hopefully it will encourage others to do something like this that is near and dear to their hearts.”
The Friendmill was completed in August 2013. Riddle and her grandson celebrated with a dedication and a parade to the backyard. The mainstays of the project attended and put the final pieces together. A rock was placed at the bottom of the windmill that reads: “Friendmill. Powered not by wind but love of friends.”
But the story does not end there. While the Friendmill is complete, the scrapbook keeps growing. As more people touch her grandson’s life, she invites them to come take a picture beside Swartz and the Friendmill.
The last picture in the book is one of Swartz and Riddle taken last Christmas, but Swartz, now in fourth grade, told his Nana that will have to change.
“The last picture will be of me with my wife and kids,” Swartz says.