For over 40 years, the Gould family has centered their lives around helping others in Deerpark and surrounding communities in Western Orange County, New York.
The tradition started with Jonathan and Pricilla Gould at a local church and was passed down to their daughter Denise Hulse and then to granddaughter Rebecca Hulse, who opened doors for the senior couple to touch more young lives in the school districts.
Once, they took a troubled teenage boy from a broken family under their wing, giving him love and confidence that helped him become a productive citizen today.
“We have never really made a list of everything we’ve done. It has always been spontaneous or as it happens,” Pricilla Gould told The Epoch Times at her home in Sparrow Bush, a hamlet of Deerpark.
“Since our kids were little, we have had a lot of faith in our lord, and a lot of what we do is because of that faith. We feel that we should serve others as Jesus would serve us,” she said.
Faith and Church
At 27, Jonathan Gould, a Port Jervis native and Marine veteran, became a Christian. Soon, he and his wife got involved at the Milford Bible Church, running youth groups and helping with vacation Bible school.
When they heard of families struggling to get by, they gave money to the pastor to pass it on without revealing that it came from them.
“We didn’t want them to know it—we did it because of our Lord,” Gould said.
Their two daughters grew up around their church volunteering, taking it in as a natural part of life.
“My heart for volunteering was to stem from them. It wasn’t a forced thing—nobody told me you have to do this or you have to do that,” Denise Hulse told The Epoch Times.
When her daughter, Rebecca Hulse, attended the Eldred School District, Hulse volunteered for the parent-teacher association, school potluck, and fundraiser.
Then she saw a need for costume altering and fitting for school plays, so she took it on and recruited her mother, a seamstress by profession, and her father.
‘Costume Mistress’
Together, the family trio would alter and fit thousands of costumes each school year, first for the Eldred and then the Port Jervis School District, for about 10 years.
Hulse, dubbed the “costume mistress” by many in the community, would buy the costumes from places such as the Salvation Army. Her mother would alter the costumes based on cast and plays, and her father would help with delivery.
They said the volunteering act saved the districts thousands of dollars each year.
Sometimes in the time crunch just ahead of the plays, they would work on the costumes at schools past 11 p.m., with young Rebecca Hulse by their side.
“I’m surprised that I didn’t just make a bed in the locker room,” Hulse said.
The volunteering of family members also inspired Hulse to get more involved in school activities, such as cheerleading and student council.
“That gave us even more reason to be involved because we could watch what she was doing and do it all together,” Pricilla Gould said.
Through the costume work, the family had a deeper interaction with school district children and discovered many had troubled family situations.
“Until you are involved on that level, you don’t realize how many kids don’t have normal things,” Hulse said. “A lot of kids that get involved in plays or other activities don’t have great lives at home—they literally might not have food at home, or there may be nobody at all for them to go home to.”
“When you start to see this, and you start to hear this, then it becomes almost like I have to do this for the children—it isn’t just about helping the school district anymore,” she said.
Touching Young Lives
For kids who couldn’t afford shoes for the plays, Hulse helped them. For those who had to wait over an hour after rehearsals for parents to show up, the Gould family stayed with them.
“You can kind of sense when kids are having a hard time. They are so in need of just a loving, kind, warm gesture,” Pricilla Gould said.
Once, they helped a boy with measurement and fitting, which astonished his mother, who told them the child was autistic and had never allowed such close contact before.
“We just went about our business and treated him like any other student,” she said.
When the Gould family volunteered with a community theater called Presby Players in Port Jervis, they met a teenage boy from a dysfunctional family.
His father died of cancer, his mother was an alcoholic, and his siblings robbed the mother’s house for money to sustain their drug habits—that happened so often that his mother finally got a court-issued restraining order against them.
For a year, the Gould family took the teen under their wing, inviting him up for dinner, taking him fishing, and reminding him to do homework.
“He is a young man on the right track now because of the love from people like us,” Jonathan Gould said.
“If those things weren’t done for that young child during that time, maybe he would have still been stuck back in that adverse scenario or whatever that was pushed on him,” he said.
Senior of the Year
Alongside volunteering at the school district, Jonathan Gould donated materials to schools, parks, and other local organizations through his glass and window company.
Sometimes, the couple drives local seniors to doctor appointments, shops, and churches.
As Rebecca Hulse got involved with the Drug Abuse Council of Orange County in recent years, the Gould couple came to help her with fundraising, ushering at ceremonies, and annual contests.
Two years ago, Hulse was awarded the Citizen of the Month Award from County Executive Steven Neuhaus for her work at the drug abuse council.
In the summer of 2022, a colleague at the council suggested that Hulse nominate her parents for the county Senior of the Year award, and she did.
On Dec. 1, the Gould couple was given the award during the county legislative county session.
Orange County Office for the Aging Director Ann Marie Maglione said of the Gould couple during the award ceremony: “They say that a society is judged by the way people treat the young, the ill, and the elderly. You two are an example, and we are doing great because of you two.”
County Legislature Majority Leader Tom Faggione added: “We are so blessed to have you in our community [and] it transcends generations—your daughter and your granddaughter are so much involved in our community. Without your family being there for us, we would not be the community that we are.”
Cara is an Orange County, New York-based Epoch Times reporter. She can be reached at cara.ding@epochtimes.com
