With the inauguration just two days away, I’ve been thinking a lot about what this new administration will bring, and how it will affect me. One thing I really admire about Obama is his continual message of unity and the need to work together. His Renew America Together initiative is especially impressive. The message is simple: things are hard right now for much of this country, and if we’re going to have better days, we need to find a way to work together again to improve our communities.
It makes sense to me. Our sense of community isn’t what it used to be. I know very little about my neighbors. Trying to pull them all together to fight a development behind us is hard to do. And someone who used to live in our community was the one breaking into our homes and stealing our things. No one watches out for their neighbors, and no one cares about their neighbors’ hardships.
As a kid, I knew everyone on my block. Most of the neighbors knew each other and spent time talking as friends would do. They visited each other all the time. If someone had a tragedy in their family, neighbors would bring them food and offer words of comfort. Our school collected good-condition used clothing each fall to distribute to other kids in our town who needed them.
I want my daughters to know the importance of helping others, too. We’ve received help from friends and family ever since Aaron was laid off, and we’ve done our best to help others with what we have. Boxes of old clothing recently went to Goodwill, serving the dual functions of making more room in our home as well as providing income for a great charity.
Right before Christmas I also brought a large donation of diapers, formula, a dollhouse and Johnson & Johnson baby products to our local YWCA family shelter. Just this past week I received a very nice letter from them, thanking us for providing items they so desperately need.
We’re going to continue all of this in 2009. In re-organizing Mira’s room yesterday, I found more clothing that we no longer need. Continuing to give items we no longer use or need to Goodwill or other charities helps others, but also simplify our lives as well. I’ll also continue giving to the YWCA family shelter – with the recession tightening its hold more each day, I know this organization will need any assistance we can offer to provide for the increasing numbers of families seeking out their help.
I do believe that if we all made some effort to better our towns and cities, we’d see some amazing changes. It’s about time we all came together for something other than a national tragedy.
What about you? What will you do in 2009 to help your community?
This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by The Quaker Oats Company.
Great post. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Last year, a dog knocked over our trash can and I was out by the road, cleaning it up. A lady and her two young children stopped, got out, and helped pick it up. I thanked her profusely and she said “I’m trying to teach my children to help others. What better way to teach than to show them?” This really touched me and I can’t wait to do the same for others.
My plan for this year is to continue to donate things (we’ve done a lot of Goodwill runs), but to also look for the small things for my family to help with, just like the lady with the trash.
I love donating. It’s such a win-win. We benefit so much from decluttering and simplifying our lives. And knowing our perfectly good items are used – it’s just a good thing all around. Now I need to get the 3 boxes in the office and actually get them out to the donation drop-off…
Did I mention that Canadians love your new president? We love him. We finally won’t mind when non-Canadians assume that he is our president as well.
I’ve always been one of those people that applauds volunteerism, and then doesn’t get involved. I admit it. But I do find ways to give back, whether making donations to my chosen charities, supporting friends and family in their fundraising efforts, or passing on our baby items to a local women’s shelter and the Toronto CF foundation (who then sell the goods to VV/Goodwill).
It’s not hard to find ways to help, even if it can’t be through the giving of your time, although I will try to make more of an effort to do so as a family this year.
Last week, I wrote about how little I feel I do. Sure, I help in my kids’ schools — but that really benefits them. And I give to my church and help there — but that, again, benefits me and mine. I manage to donate four bags of things to Goodwill each month. MONTH! That helps me by de-cluttering and, as you say, simplifying. I’m on the prowl for something more.
Yeah we definitely have our share of clutter to donate, which we do. In fact, we could use another cycle of de-cluttering and donating right now.
My plan for the year is to get to know the people of my community better, now that we’re really establishing more roots here.