The lone visitor sitting at the next table in the local café struck up a conversation with those around him.
“I grew up here and am thinking about moving back,” he said. “What do you like best about Sheridan?”
He asked what makes Sheridan great.
The Empty Bowl event sponsored by Volunteers of America held each spring at the fairgrounds is my best example. Churches, restaurants, businesses and organizations offer their favorite soups for the public to taste and vote on. Students make pottery bowls and cups for the event, music provides a backdrop for conversations and games keep the young ones occupied. The entrance fee is minimal and discounts for families ensure that everyone can participate. It is standing-room-only in a crowd that spans generations, backgrounds and economic status in support of neighbors in need.
Community. Pinning down a single meaning is as difficult as capturing mercury. And there is a good reason. It means so much more than just people living in close proximity to each other. At its core, community is about the voluntary connections we build through shared interests and benefits. It is a recognition that that we cannot thrive on our own, that our lives are made richer by changing our focus from ourselves to others.
The mighty 17th-century thinker and pastor John Donne put it this way: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
Perhaps the best way to understand community is to look at the ways it shows up.
Last summer was the worst wildfire season any of us here have experienced. The House Draw and Elk fires in Northeast Wyoming devastated public and private lands. Local, state and national firefighters mobilized and so did our communities. Neighbors opened their doors to evacuees. Fairgrounds opened for displaced livestock; neighbors showed up with trailers and animal handling experience. People gathered and delivered food, water, clothing, protective gear, equipment. Ag communities from as far away as Texas sent hay and feed.
Cheyenne Frontier Days brings visitors by the thousands and dollars by the millions into town for The Daddy of Them All. The engine that makes it run are the hundreds of volunteers serving helping with every single operation from tickets to groundskeeping to entertainment to communications.
They are their own community. And in return, the organization created the Volunteer Crisis Fund to raise money that helps them out with medical bills, family crises and personal problems.
Community also celebrates the good times. Every third Friday morning in July, Sheridan County shuts down as we Get Wyo’d at the rodeo parade. Main Street is blocked off for summer Third Thursday street festivals as locals and tourists enjoy food, music, crafts and shopping. Friday night lights bring out local high school football fans whether parents, grandparents, alumni or neighbors. When Ragtime Cowboy Joe is played, everyone stands up and sings, whether new to the state or an alumnus. And really, is anyone in Wyoming not a Buffalo Bills fan now?
Look around your own town and you will find any number of groups investing time, energy and funds to make others happy, fed, healthy, connected. That provides an opportunity to learn, join in fellowship, share, teach, grow, improve, lift up, clean up and raise up.
In small towns, that may be through the public school, church, a group that meets for coffee each day at the local café. Larger communities usually have service clubs like Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions. VFWs and American Legions do great things for veterans and their families.
Interested in the outdoors? There may be a local land trust or outdoor council. Concerned about mental health? Counseling services will know about support groups. Want to do something about hunger? Home delivered meals or Meals on Wheels need volunteers. The Wyoming Food Bank feeds hundreds every day. Serve Wyoming has an online tool (volunteerwyoming.org) for connecting people to volunteer opportunities.
There is an ethical theory of “Enlightened Self Interest.” That means doing the right thing because it is in your own best interest. That is precisely what happens when we build community.
