Colleen O’Neill and Caroline Storrs are co-chairpersons of the Cornish Spirit Committee. The following is an edited interview with O’Neill.

We have to vote at Town Meeting to get the money, and they cut our budget by 50 percent this year. It used to be $1,000, now it’s $500. We use that for supplies, then we organize volunteers. This year we got donations of the paint, the brushes and the rollers.

Shawn Hallock, the baseball coach, stood up at Town Meeting and said, “I’m bringing the whole team to help.” It was so great. I think it’s important to get kids involved at an early age because then it seems natural, like, “Oh, that’s just what we do.”

We do one project a year. If you look back, there’s been a lot of painting. There have been a couple of landscaping projects. Last year we painted the trim on the new fire station. For the past 20 years, our projects have been a way to get the community involved. And it saves on taxes.

We’ve been doing it for a long time here but I think more communities are going to start because they have to. Especially now, people are having a hard time paying their taxes, so it’s even more important to allow people to participate and give back to their community without paying more.

There’s still a lot of town spirit in Cornish. If someone needs help, people say, “What can I do?” even if they don’t know you. We had a big house fire years ago, and people I didn’t even know helped us a lot. What goes around comes around, don’t you think?

I grew up in Maryland, but I love it here. I’ve lived here 20 years, which is not very long. Here’s the thing - and someone in Cornish told me this - it’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at. It’s what you do when you’re here that matters.

You have to meet your neighbors and get to know who lives around you. Cornish is small enough to do that. You can sit alone at home and not talk to anybody, or you can get involved. That’s what people see and recognize. And there are a lot of opportunities to help.

I don’t know everything that’s going on, but Caroline is a schoolteacher, and she has the pulse of the town. People will start coming forward, saying here’s a project you might want to think about. We’re not sure what next year’s is going to be, but I’m pretty sure something will turn up.