The lesson that I learned during Covid, one that is reinforced nearly daily in my life since the pandemic began, is the importance of COMMUNITY.
Community comes in all
shapes and forms. Our immediate (blood
or adopted) families. Our friends. Our chosen families. The members of a place of worship. Co-workers.
Neighbors. An educational cohort.
Community.
Pre-Covid, I will confess,
my community was quite small. But
as our worlds began to narrow – as we stayed home, afraid to interact with
others outside our “bubble” – a strange thing happened.
Unbeknownst to me, the significance
of community was percolating in my brain.
And slowly,
unintentionally, I began to build community for myself. I put out a poll on our corner every morning –
totally insignificant questions posed to passersby, the results not even
tabulated. I began to not only give away
and receive things in a local online exchange group, I started to also post thank
you photos and blurbs about how the items I received were now being given
new life. I wrote more frequent stories
of kindness and shared them. I asked
neighbors to join in and beat pots and pans in the evenings to thank the health
care professionals….
Each of these acts (and
the many others somehow dreamed up while on lock-down) had a compounding
effect: They. Built.
Community.
And now I have been
reminded that communities are not only there to celebrate in the joyous times,
but they are also there to rally and support in times of stress, unhappiness,
uncertainty, and grief.
Arlington, Virginia, the physical
community where we live, suffered a great sadness recently. Five students at Wakefield, a local high
school, overdosed on the same day. One,
Sergio Flores (age 14), died. And just two
days later, the facility was on lockdown for three hours as police searched the
premises to find who had brought a loaded gun to school.
These instances shook the
community. The school was in shock. I can’t imagine how the teachers, counselors,
bus drivers, and other staff members felt in the wake of both the tragedy and
the scare.
In troubled times like
this, most humans respond with a sense of caring. We want to be helpful somehow, but
how?? There are no actions that can make
things “better” in times like that, but we search for something, anything, that
can perhaps somehow contribute to the greater good.
So, I put out a call for
cards.
I asked in a couple of
community groups: can you please
handwrite a card for a Wakefield staff member and drop it off on my porch? I explained that we needed 260 (the number we
originally thought would equal a card for each teacher and assistant). Many, many people responded. Some offered to write cards. Some offered blank cards for others to
use. Some made hand crafted cards. One even offered to furnish supplies and
teach others how to make cards.
And so, like many of the
ideas in my head, this one grew and grew.
Our ask of 260 cards grew to a bigger ask – wanting to include ALL staff (janitorial
staff, security, bus drivers, food staff, counselors…). And the cards kept coming! A neighbor offered her porch for a secondary
drop-off location for cards.
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| Cards - handwritten by loving and supportive members of the COMMUNITY. Gifts - small tokens to show that the staff of Wakefield High School is not alone. |
In just a few days, 481 cards were written. This is many more than were needed to give one to each staff member. I used Kindness Activist funds to order 352 gifts from a lovely Etsy shop – lip balms, bath bombs, and a few headache relief rollers (Maggie's Farm Aromatics Etsy Shop ). When I explained Kindness Activist and the situation at the high school to the shop owner, she gladly gave me a discount.
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| Handcrafted lip balms, headache relief rollers, and bath bombs - a gift for each and every staff member. |
Then my sister and I headed
out to find the perfect way to display, transport, and give the cards and
gifts. We thought a basket would be good
– but where does one find a basket big enough for everything we had to fit inside
it?? I will tell you where – GOODWILL… Call
it a miracle, call it kismet, call it luck, call it proof of a Higher Power –
whatever you choose to label it, our local Goodwill had the prettiest, BIGGEST
basket ever. And of course, since it was
Goodwill, it was one of a kind. What are
the chances???
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| The biggest basked we have ever seen. It was far too heavy for one person to carry. |
On a sunny Monday, we carried the heavy basket into the school office. The bath bombs made such a lovely scent, and the basket filled with cards and gifts was a sight to behold. We left it there for office staff to distribute cards and gifts as they saw fit.
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| Wakefield teachers and staff - THE COMMUNITY IS BEHIND YOU. |
This is community.
This is many hands and hearts
pitching in – each one showing support.
This is caring. This. Is.
Love.
Kindness Activist funds
spent: $1028.01
Support shared: immeasurable
