Community Build Day! From "Me to We"

In the last two weeks, I have thought a lot about the meaning of "Community." In politics, it's a word that is thrown around a lot. Online you see it everywhere! I myself have used it in my last PTA newsletter where I discussed volunteering and stepping up for the betterment of the students. But it's still not a word that I can easily define, so I looked it up. The dictionary read, “A group of people living together in one place.” While that makes made sense to me on a practical level, it didn’t really resonate. Isn’t community something more than just a locale? Aren’t our communities defined by something more powerful than physical proximity?

Saturday, these questions were answered. Even though we were 100 people or so all representing different groups, the meaning of community was everywhere. It was in the 15 guys that woke up at 7 am on a Saturday bearing power drills and dragging wheelbarrows to Noble to put a playground together for kids. For a few it wasn't even for theirown kids. It was in the volunteers that donated their Saturday to face paint the kids. It was in Daisy and Kansen Chu's discussion about bringing diverse neighbors together and unifying them for one purpose, the kids. It was in Telma Rangel's quest to bring something new to the school grounds. Most importantly, it was in the spirit of the day, the idea of moving from thinking about "me" to thinking and acting "we."

The beauty of Community Build Day was that the people that came out were incredibly varied, with widely different life experiences....but they were unified in their case. I gave high fives to kids who were no more than ten, spoke with parents about their educational vision for their kids, and brainstormed with teachers about what "teaching" meant to them. We had a colorful cast of volunteers from a board of trustee member, to a corporate marketing person from Old Navy, and John, a kid at heart out to have fun from PD Play. We had a carpenter, a gardener, stay at home moms, an accountant and even a few high tech engineers.

However, in spite of all our different experiences everyone came together with one purpose. We believed in the power of people to make constructive change. Everyone that came out Saturday did not just come to build a playground. They came out because they are all shameless idealists who are ready to take action and affect the world in a profound way.

So after all the excitement of Community Build Day, my definition of community is a little bit different. While I usually defer to the dictionary, this time I beg to differ. Community is about more than living in a particular place. It is about a powerful force that encompasses diverse peoples united in a common cause. "Community" is the idea of "we" and the choice to live beyond one’s self and reach out into the world of others.

So I want to thank all of you who came out on Saturday and made the choice to move from "me" to "we" while creating a simple play structure that impacts the world of 600 kids for this year, and hundreds more that will follow.