Scott Warde does not shy away from a project. The retired Air Force veteran is constantly searching for ways to contribute to the community — be it through organizing town clean-up days, erecting a veterans’ monument, or leading historic preservation efforts.

“We all live here for the same reason,” Scott said of his town of Newbury near Mount Sunapee. “We love the lake. We love the mountain. It’s why most everybody is here. You get like-minded people in the same area, so now it’s just about getting everybody together to work in the same direction. It’s really pretty cool.”

Scott and his wife Sandy Warde, a fellow Air Force veteran, have lived in Newbury full-time for four years after building a house there in 2012. After 28 years in the military and another 12 working at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, Scott relished the opportunity to put down roots in New Hampshire.

“Because I moved around so much in the military I didn’t get to get involved in a town like I have here,” he said. “So it’s kind of cool to be able to work with the town to get things done for the community.”

Scott and Sandy joined the Newbury Veterans’ Committee and have participated in efforts to help other local veterans through food and clothing drives and raising money to buy oil and other necessities for those with lower incomes. Thanks to the committee and other local channels, Scott has met people with similar outlooks and broad skill sets. He grew up loving construction and honed his skills with tools while in the military. He noticed buildings requiring upkeep, such as the town hall and the veterans hall, so he organized repair drives, leading the town to ask him and other members of the Veterans’ Committee to help assess town facilities and create a list of projects that need attention. They divided the projects into two categories: work that could be carried out by volunteers and projects that needed professional attention.

“Scott is a great organizer,” Sandy Warde said. “He can get most anybody to come. He makes it sound like it’s going to be the best thing since sliced bread, and they all come. He’s very humble. He won’t talk about himself too much. He keeps giving credit to everybody else. He has the town at heart.”

From a clean-up weekend in October involving cutting down brush along the shores of Lake Sunapee, to hours spent removing debris from around the barn at the athletic fields, Scott knows the work he and his fellow residents perform allows the town to keep moving forward faster than it otherwise would. Thanks to volunteerism, that work comes at no cost to Newbury. The town recently hired a staff member to tend to some of these projects on the recommendation of the group that did the maintenance assessment.

“We’re kind of rural so it’s not like we have the services that people have down in the southern part of the state,” he said. “We don’t have any of that. We have to roll up our sleeves and pitch in a little bit.”

Last year, the Wardes, through the Veterans’ Committee, took the lead on the design and installation of a monument to honor veterans. The monument, which was unveiled on Memorial Day in 2024, features an eagle perched on a granite slab with a plaque that reads, “Honoring all those that sacrificed for our freedom.” The couple hopes that the more connections they cultivate among local veterans, the more people will get involved in town life.

“We have some veterans that are in need of help that we don’t know about,” Sandy said. “We found out one, in fact, who passed away at the older folks home here in Newbury. Nobody knew he was there, other than the librarian. So when he passed, we made sure that he got his full military honors for his burial and made sure that his family was taken care of when they came.”

Scott sees a need for neighbors to look out for each other. The pandemic and the internet have made many people more isolated, he said. He aims to facilitate more socialization among Newbury residents, regardless of whether they live there full or part-time. The community clean-up days and maintenance projects have allowed people to come together for common goals. Beyond larger-scale projects, however, Scott just wants to foster a culture of “neighbors helping neighbors.”

“All the connections are what it’s all about,” he said. “We’re human so we’re wired that way, to have connections with other people. Being able to reach out and touch and affect people that you don’t even know is cool. You make some great friends doing that. The community thing is what it’s all about. It’s why we all live here.”

Another recent project includes the repair of a covered bridge and the town also has a caboose with a leak in its roof that Scott and fellow residents are fixing. Looking ahead, Scott has his sights set on restoring two historic structures, the Old Grange Building and the Old Town Hall, both of which could become communal gathering spaces.

He loves where he lives and wants to do his part to ensure others in present and future generations can continue to feel the same.

“When you look at the town of Newbury, it’s one of those Norman Rockwell places with a meeting house and the town hall and the church and the fire department, and all of that is in the center of the village,” he said. “It makes it that iconic New England town. It’s one of the reasons we came here.”

Rachel Wachman can be reached at rwachman@cmonitor.com