NORTH YARMOUTH — Jeanne Chadbourne doesn’t spend several hours each week mowing the lawn at Skyline Farm because she feels it’s something that must or be done or because she’s trying to be a great citizen.

The 73-year-old said she just enjoys mowing lawns. After all, she hasn’t had a lawn to mow since she moved into a condo, so Skyline Farm provides her with a chance to keep active. Plus her cockapoo, Tim, sits on her lap while she cuts the grass, so it’s fun for the whole family.

“People look at this as volunteering, and I look at it as, these are things I like to do,” she said. “I love to mow lawns.”

It’s part of what makes Chadbourne North Yarmouth’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year, an honor she will receive Saturday at the town’s annual Fun Day.

Lawnmowing aside, Chadbourne is being recognized for years of community service. She has served on the Board of Selectmen and School Administrative District 51 Board of Directors, and she oversees functions at the North Yarmouth Congregational Church Fellowship Hall, is a church trustee and serves on the Stewardship Committee.

Chadbourne’s activities have also included organizing Cumberland-North Yarmouth Lions Club dinners each month, serving on the Parks and Recreation Committee and volunteering at the Mabel I. Wilson School. She was also involved in the effort to build a sidewalk along Route 9, on which she often walks with Tim.

“If I belong to an organization, I tend to find something I enjoy doing,” Chadbourne said last week.

Chadbourne taught fourth through sixth grades in SAD 51 for 28 years before retiring in the mid-1990s.

She came from a small town in Ohio before moving to Chebeague Island in the late 1960s. She moved to North Yarmouth in 1977, and said she enjoys the natural beauty and quietude of the area.

“A real good feeling for the town of North Yarmouth” has kept Chadbourne in the town all these years, she said. “There’s no place I would rather be, unless it would be Chebeague Island, and I could do that very easily.”

She said North Yarmouth’s residents are “the salt of the Earth.”

Chadbourne, who will serve as grand marshal in the Fun Day parade, said her initial reaction to being honored was “Why me? There are so many people in North Yarmouth that do pretty much what I do.”

She added that “whatever I’m doing, I enjoy. And that’s why it’s funny to have someone make sort of a big deal out of it. It’s certainly isn’t a big deal to me. It’s just part of what I do.”

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.

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Jeanne Chadbourne is North Yarmouth’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year. She will be honored Saturday at the town’s annual Fun Day event.

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