We’re Not Just Playing Poker – We’re Building Community

Every weekend our community has a farmers market. I enjoy going to it, and even if I don’t purchase anything, I enjoy the feeling of community that washes over me as I am there. Each week I find myself talking to more and more people as we well as catching up with those people I had met in the past and it feels so good!

When our farmers market closes in the fall I find myself missing the interaction as people start to go into hibernation mode for the winter months (winters in Wisconsin can be bit brisk)., so again, come early spring I look forward to the first days of the market (even though there isn’t much – or many people – there).

I truly enjoy taking my daughters to the market and having them experience this community and the people I talk to always seem to enjoy interacting with them as well. I can only hope that as they get older they will come to enjoy this as much as I do (but you never know). I also feel that it is important to reach out to others and help in our own way (which talking to people may not do this – but assisting with other community initiatives and having my children involved will).

Thinking about this I decided to explore to see if there were any resources out there about building community for children and assisting or teaching children how to help others in our own communities. Some of the sites of interest included:

The building of community makes me think of the whole blogging community and how we all work to outreach in our own way and help others or help the world in our own way. In my most recent initiative, The great Minivan Trade Up, I have been amazed at the generosity of others reaching out to me to assist me in reaching my goal. There have been many other instances in starting out as a blogger and not knowing what I was doing where people stepped in to lend a helping hand. This type of outreach helps to build our overall blogging world, and assists to provide a more solid infrastructure for all of us to stand on.

So I thank all of you who have helped me along the way, especially Jeremy, Summer, Joey, Tyler and Tom. There have been others as well that have helped in their own ways, so thank you to all of you as well.

So my question for the day?

How do you build community in your life or our town?
How do you teach your children to value community building?

August 30, 2008 |

Comments

1 Comment so far

Jesse Goodin August 30, 2008 7:30 am
I found your site on Google and read a few of your other entires. Nice Stuff. I’m looking forward to reading more from you.