On any given Saturday, throngs of well-intended home improvers flock to hardware stores crusading for the tool or part needed to complete projects back at home. Several years ago, I found myself on such a mission to the irrigation section when a neighbor, expressed an acute frustration over feeling excluded from neighborhood happenings. Unsurprisingly, she moved less than a year later.
Some time later, another friend quipped that she knew her neighbors only via lazy epithets such as “guy who smokes on his porch” and “Asian family down the street.” Finally, a 20-something millennial recently lamented the isolationism expressed by many of her peers.
Exclusion, disconnection and isolation are salient problems.
The solution lies in our collective efforts to build a sense of community—first to care about our neighbors, businesses and institutions, and then to find simple methods of helping them.
In fact, the greatest frontier to be explored lies not atop distant summits or the outreaches of space, but in our own homes, neighborhoods and communities. The exploration of one’s potential as a force for good takes you higher than any mountain, farther than any space journey.
This is why Millcreekers do little things, such as shoveling snow for a neighbor, and big things, such as community-wide service projects á la Canyon Rim Cares.
Canyon Rim Cares is the confluence of individuals, families, businesses, faiths, and non-profit organizations to perform 30 different service projects in a single day. By participating, everyone and anyone can help children in need, individuals with mental health challenges, and victims of human trafficking. We also help pets needing homes, immigrants needing language skills, and villages in Africa needing water.
A recent transplant from the Midwest to Millcreek said, “I love living here because people care about each other.”
Next time you’re in the irrigation aisle, think beyond merely improving your home, think about improving your community.
See you July 19.
More information canyonrimiscommunity.com.