You Inspire Me

In the end, twenty-four of you took us up on our offer and donated to the Wallingford-based food bank and family services organization FamilyWorks and received a jar our our “fresh from Wallingford gardens” honey as a thank you. The food bank has over $1,400 more to work with thanks to you.

We stopped off at FamilyWorks on Tuesday to drop off the honey (donators are encouraged to pick up at FamilyWorks itself, so they can see where their donations are going, but we offered to deliver, as well) and we were struck by the line of people waiting for the food bank to open. There was no pushing and shoving and, despite oft-repeated claims, we didn’t see any fancy cars outside, just people and families with children who seemed grateful and patient to have some help putting food on the table. We chatted with Jake Weber, the FamilyWorks director, for a bit during the drop-off and learned that the Nickerson Street Saloon will be open on Thanksgiving Day to provide a free lunch to 75 FamilyWorks clients. Free meal for 75 people in need. Wow!

That kind of kindness kind of makes us teary. There’s a lot in this world to be troubled by: collapsing economies, rising unemployment, a dysfunctional legislature…wait, this was supposed to be uplifting, sorry.

Where were we? Right, there’s a lot to be troubled by, but when you look around and see people helping each other out and working in small and large ways to fix the things the can, well, it’s like a cool breeze on a sweltering day: it gives you the energy to pick yourself up and start moving forward again.

So “thank you” to all the folks who are doing the things that you can to make the world better, whatever that means to you. Knowing there are people like you out there gives me the inspiration and resolve to do the same.