Blockworker of the Month: A Friend To All
Everly Hildebrandt Delivers The Paper With Help From Dad And Thunder
Story and photo by Cara DeGette
Editor, GPHN
Everly Hildebrandt is a girl on the move.
At Hallett, where Hildebrandt goes to school, she likes doing art and recess, learning how to read books and making friends with everyone. In fact, she says, she has really liked making friends with everyone she meets ever since she was a baby.
When it’s nice out Hildebrandt rides her bike and goes swimming at the pool. She loves the thrill of the roller coaster, and doing stuff with her mom and her dad and her older sister Aubrea. On top of all that she likes going to birthday parties, which is a good thing because she’s got one coming right up. On March 8 she’ll be 5 years old.
“I like my world,” she says.
For as long as she can remember, Hildebrandt has been a blockworker in Park Hill, helping to deliver the newspaper every month to her neighbors. Aubrea did it first, but got pretty busy being in middle school. So Everly mostly does it now, with help from her dad Ryan. Sometimes their dogs Ruby and Roamin go along too.
For Christmas last year Hildebrandt’s grandparents Gigi and Pop Pop gave her an off-road vehicle. She named it Thunder. With all of the nasty weather and ice buildup, Thunder has come in handy this winter helping Hildebrandt safely get the newspapers delivered every month. “I have a trunk, and I put [the newspapers] in there,” she explains, “and then I drive to each house and my dad walks with me and delivers them to the houses.”
In addition to her delivery skills, Hildebrandt has also proven to be a talented researcher for Mark Silverstein’s Bugland photo feature, which appears in the newspaper each month. Last summer she captured a Western Lynx spider from underneath a spruce tree and was pretty excited when a close-up picture of her spider ended up in the July issue. “It made me so happy,” she says. “It was so cool my name was in the newspaper because I catched that spider.”
Everly Hildebrandt is one more than 300 volunteer blockworkers who deliver the Greater Park Hill News every month to homes all over the neighborhood. Blockworker of the month suggestions are welcome. Send nominations to editor@greaterparkhill.org.