By Lila Misuraca

"She's a born teacher," he said, with a smile of admiration. She retaliated, "HE is the eternal professor." Bill and Carolyn Mitchell may have retired as educators, but they will never give up their mission to make the world a little smarter and cleaner. To prove their dedication, their basement is jammed with boxes and boxes of The Recycle Game ®, Bill's invention to help people learn about recycling while having fun. "If we didn't feel strongly about managing our resources, we wouldn't be doing this," Bill said. His board game resembles the old favorite, Monopoly®, with a slight twist. Instead of using your money to buy hotels, you will be paying fines for polluting or for purchasing sludge facilities. Don't know what sludge is? You'll learn. Inadvertently you'll be broadening your vocabulary and finding out how to help your community save it landfill facilities. The Mitchells have given 100 of these games to RSVP for distribution. This generous donation with its positive message will be another link between RSVP and the community.

Bill and Carolyn have a long history of teaching behind them. "We started our careers in Henniker, where she was teaching and I was principal," he said. "He was also a teacher and coached boys' sports," Carolyn added. They ended up in Delaware where for 35 years she was in the public schools teaching English and French, and he was a professor in the University's School of Agriculture instructing future farmers in soil science.

When they went to visit their son, Perry, who is a medical doctor in charge of a government clinic on a Navaho Indian reservation in arid Arizona, Bill noticed that the village vegetable garden needed mulch. After he secured a truckload of compost for the sandy soil, he saw to it that the villagers began their own composting facility to further enrich the earth there, permit it to absorb water better and thus retain its nutrients.

The couple's daughter, Mrs. Mary Chin, teaches art at Vermont's Oxbow High School, which recently named her Teacher of the Year.

Bill began as a farmer in his native Acworth, New Hampshire but took time out to become a pilot in the Army's 14^th Air Force during World War II. He served under the late General Claire Lee Chennault as one of the famous Flying Tigers.

After their retirement, the Mitchell's left Delaware for West Lebanon. They quickly took up duties at the Upper Valley Senior Center by assisting with home delivered meals once a week. They also serve on RSVP's's Advisory Council. Their donation of a small table made from recycled shipping pallets, and 100 donations of recycling games is the center piece and major thrust of RSVP's upcoming raffle which will promote recycling. As Bill says, "It's an intergenerational thing -- to save our environment for people of all ages!"