Get Involved!
By Jim Sevy 

Help your children learn the value of service and community involvement by providing a good example.

One of the ways we have brought our family closer together is by doing service for others. A great deal of the service opportunities that we have been able to take advantage of, were born out of our involvement in our community. My wife and I have been part of the Friends of the Library group in our town. This involvement has given us and our children the chances to be involved with the campaign for a new library and the many fun and fulfilling activities that have gone along with that. 

We have had the chance to buy, wrap and sneakily deliver books for Christmas for children that were not going to get much else. We had the chance to help with story telling festivals, and an exceptional ground breaking ceremony where all the children in our town were invited to help out by bringing their Tonka trucks and tractors to help break the ground. Our younger kids dug and dug and did not plan on stopping until the hole was there for the new library. When we said it was time to go, my four year old son protested and said, "Aren’t I doing a good enough job?" 

Being involved in your community gives your family a sense that you have a stake in the community. It teaches you to do things that will better the community rather than just gripe about the way things are. 

So often, we don’t get involved unless there is a problem on our street or in our back yard. If you get involved you rapidly learn that you can have a say in the way things are. Not only do you learn that lesson, but your children learn it as well. Then you end up with a truer more progressive community filled with caring, anxiously engaged people who want better for their community and are prepared to do something about making the things that they want a reality. 

So go to City Council meeting, join your neighborhood watch, sub for Santa, get involved and learn what you can do for yourself, your family and your town. 

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