03/20/2020
HOW WE CAN HELP:
I've always tried to find the silver lining in everything no matter how bad it may seem. As I racked my brain trying to figure out a way to help all these small business owners and people who will be greatly affected by this pandemic I finally came to the conclusion that you just can't and if I were to try it will inevitably end in failure and wasted resources that could have been better utilized elsewhere. And after racing through scenarios on how to best utilize my resources to make a difference I realized i was going about it all wrong. As with most people these days I was just thinking way too big. I can't help everyone and in trying to I wasted several days neglecting those closest to me and those within my own community. Through all this I never even reached out to the elderly couple across my street to make sure they had everything they needed. I can't help everyone but I can help my family, people from my office and anyone inside my immediate neighborhood. There are over 300 homes in my community and if we can connect and come together as one I promise there is nothing we can't handle. I know it's scary but as anything it is always more scary when tackling it alone. Now is a time to unite and get to know the people you've lived next to for the last 10 years or 10 days. I truly believe that humanity shines through the brightest when faced with crisis and unlike the great tragedy of 9/11 only those who lived in NY, and had to see it every day, TRULY understood the devastation it caused. But no one can hide from this and if we try to combat it alone it will devastate us. Now more than ever we must conserve resources and come together to be there for one another and pick each other up instead of knocking each other down. Everything must start small and work it's way up and we must first make sure we have enough for our immediate family and whatever we have that's left over must then go to helping our neighbor, then neighborhood, city, county, state and so on. But it has to start on the small scale because that's the only way we can ensure efforts and resources are being utilized properly. Today I will be going around and posting flyers on all the mailboxes in my neighborhood and posting my contact information along with links to nextdoor and our homeowners association page to implore everyone in my community to get connected and if they can't to reach out to me with any needs or resources. I want to find out who in my community owns small businesses and what we can do to help. I want to combine our talents and resources within the 300+ home community I live in and make sure everyone in the community is taken care of and then if there is a surplus of resources extend our reach to other communities or if we find we're deficient we can reach out and ask for more help. However, I truly believe everyone will be amazed to learn everything we'll ever needed to thrive as a community, no matter what the landscape, has been there all along and all it took was a global pandemic in order for us to realize it.
So please go out and connect with your communities, help your family and neighbors and if everyone will just follow suit something tells me everything will be alright!
