This week we have a sobering letter from Bristol resident Phil Averill on the dire need for volunteers to help Olde Bristol Days get off the ground this year.
Just a week after we used this very space to thank volunteers for doing their parts to clean up area roads, we return to the subject to second Averill’s concern.
We think about public service and volunteering often as year by year the cast of characters who make things go in our towns largely remains unchanged while there seems to be little new blood coming down the pike to replace them.
Longtime Jefferson public servant Sheridan Bond ran and won a term on that town’s board of selectmen as a 19-year-old. It is hard to imagine a teenager doing that now.
Of course modern life is busy and times are always changing, but the essential truth of Averill’s letter does not change … the very fabric of community that prompts people to move here depends on participation.
The bean suppers, ice cream socials, parades, parties, fundraisers, big community events, do not happen without people coming together to do the work.
We encourage everyone to get out and get involved. It is great way to meet people and expand your horizons. The neighbors are almost always nice and there is always too much to do and not enough hands to do it, so anything you take an interest in will likely welcome the attention.
In our experience, volunteering is lot like exercise. It is easy to sit on the couch and talk yourself out of it, but it is more fun than you think and once you get going, the rewards are self-evident and ongoing.
