Triangle volunteer group bridges division
Back in August - before the election, before a vaccine was announced, before a weird and stressful holiday season began - I was at a volunteer event where I joined a group of volunteers unpacking boxes of Chromebooks in the Leesville High School locker room.
I was carrying a New Yorker tote bag and drove to the event in my Subaru Outback. I am aware that I sound like a stereotype.
On the other hand, another volunteer, Jason, was wearing a Liberty University T-shirt and a camo trucker hat. Within 5 minutes of talking to him, he’d told me about his recent hunting trip and invited me to visit his church.
I’ll admit I didn’t think we had much in common.
I was wrong.
As we talked, Jason told me how concerned he was for kids in the rural town where he hunts. Their schools didn’t have many resources to buy technology for remote learning like Wake County did.
As he and I worked together, chatting about our lives, I realized we both want kids in the Triangle and across the country to get a good education. We both want them and their families to be fed and our communities to thrive.
For the two of us, and everyone else who joined us that day, volunteering together was a way to see how much we share despite all the pressures that have set us apart, especially during this intense year. The events of 2020 have accentuated the differences that can make people like Jason and me mistrust or even despise each other.
In a 2020 survey from the Global Points of Light Network, 82 percent of Americans agree “we all must get involved to rebuild our communities and country” as we move past the pandemic. That’s an extraordinary level of unanimity across partisan lines.
The recent election showed North Carolina remains a deeply divided state politically. Yet, as I think back to my interactions with Jason and others I’ve met as a volunteer, I know these divisions obscure a common humanity that so many of us, from all sides, desperately want to embrace.
Activate Good, a nonpartisan nonprofit which organizes high-impact volunteer opportunities with more than 500 Triangle nonprofits, schools and community organizations, helps make this interaction possible. Similar groups in the Points of Light network are promoting volunteerism in the Triad, Charlotte and elsewhere across our state. All perform an invaluable role since 44 percent of surveyed Americans said they were unsure how to get involved as volunteers or where to find opportunities.
As we look ahead to 2021, the need for community volunteers will be greater than ever, not only with our schools but in countless ways across our area. The people who have had their lives upended by the pandemic - medically, financially and socially - are our neighbors, friends, and family members.
Individuals, faith groups, workplace teams and anyone who is willing need to raise their hands in the coming year and say: We’re ready to help.
I don’t know whether I’ll run into Jason again at a volunteer event in 2021 but I have no doubt I will meet other people, with diverse backgrounds and opinions, who will remind me why I returned to this wonderful community. I’m proud to live in North Carolina. I can’t wait to get back out there.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 12:00 AM.