Last summer, my family and I moved to a very tightly knit yet welcoming community. My husband is from here, but the rest of us were newcomers. So far, I have been struck by how seamlessly this community unites on common goals in spite of its diverse group of members; and the current COVID-19 crisis has really opened my eyes to how powerful people can be when they work together for the common good. Even my voice (as a newbie) is heard and respected here. I have been thinking a lot about community lately, and about what it means to different people.
Since we have been given stay-at-home physical distancing measures, I have seen members of my community organize grocery runs for the elderly and those without transportation, put up a school page in order to keep kids and parents socializing and sharing, paint large suns to display about town to remind townspeople of sunnier days, create huge banners showing gratitude and appreciation to all the essential workers, produce a town website so that people can stay informed and communicate with one another, work with organizations like Vermont foodbank and let us know when we can get free fresh fruit and veggies in town, offer curbside pickup of lunch and breakfast for kids at the school without needing qualifications to get this benefit, paint beautiful flowers for the senior citizens to look at everyday… so many countless ways that people in my town are helping one another. I am amazed.
Regardless of the very negative ways that this crisis has affected us, I have seen such bonding and connection as a result. I wonder if, when all of this is over, we will end up with stronger communities because of our unity; undoubtedly we will.
I would love to hear stories about your communities because these stories are inspiring and elevating to the spirit. What has your community been doing to help one another during this time? What is really working for everyone right now? What “common goals” are members of your community working toward?
Missing you here in VT, Wendy. I hope we come through all this soon, so we can maintain our communities. It is distressing to see the fragmentation. Heartening to see the lengths people go to help each other, on the other side of things.
One of the sweetest things we had happen was a young neighbor went around in his truck leaving packages of T.P. at people’s houses, especially older folks. He said he is the Toilet Paper Santa. (Hat’s off to Costco, too!)
Gosh, how wonderful for you! It is what I love about VT - everyone is connected in some way, often only by one or two people (think the game being played about 7 steps to Kevin Bacon).
Unfortumately, I have had a somewhat opposite experience. I got married 5 years ago and moved to a smallish town in lower MI. The townspeople are lovely, so don’t get me wrong, but I don’t feel connected to many as the atmosphere is very different here (as some of the more recent news has shown in the capitol). There is so much anger and blame going on that people seem more disconnected than ever. And they live in fear of having their weapons taken away which only adds fuel to the fire.
Just prior to this crisis I had thought to post on the community Facebook page to bring a group together - but then CV19 happened, so I am waiting and hoping to find people then.
Luckily, I still get to be part of the VT communities I was part of because I still have my place there to visit a few times a year. This year will be different since I can’t yet travel back, but I always feel so welcomed when I do visit. This crisis has me feeling much more homesick than before, and partly because I see the craziness that is going on here in MI being elevated in a way I never thought would happen. 😔