Share in an event in your recent memory that had an unifying effect on your community. Offer a brief description and focus on how the event that you recall brought people together. We may define community anyway that we wish, from our city, neighborhood, our block to a camp or school group that we belonged. The event could have been planned or "just happened".
We will not reply to one another this time... make your entry as personal or as general as you wish...
An event that brought a community together was when Biden was announced the president-elect. I live in the UWS and the weeks leading up to that moment were very strange. The whole neighborhood felt really gloomy and weird. The pandemic obviously caused this and the stress of the election did not help either. So when Biden was announced winner, everyone went out in the street to celebrate. It was a really nice moment where everyone just came together. Most of us don't even know each other but it brought us all closer as a community.
ReplyDeleteAn even that brought my community together was when our local children's theatre was moving spaces and needed to raise funds in order to keep going. Over the course of the year, all of the families and kids came together in order to get the message out and do all that we could for the theater. Overall, this brought us all closer together because we all wanted the same thing in the end.
ReplyDeleteDuring this summer, my family and neighbors would stand outside and ring bells, blow whistles, and play music at 7:00pm everyday for all of the doctors working in the hospitals helping those who were diagnosed with Covid.
ReplyDeleteDuring Hurricane Sandy, people came together to help each other when people's houses were damaged. It was amazing to see people taking strangers into their homes while they had no where else to go.
ReplyDeleteEthan Lader
I used to do a lot of plays at a local family theater. When we first would walk in, some of us regulars and some of us new faces, we would often be strangers. Maybe we were close friends with one or two people, but for the most part we were a random group of kids from all different ages and all different backgrounds who all had completely different reasons for being there.
ReplyDeleteThen we'd spend hours rehearsing different scenes. We learned each others strengths and weaknesses. We all withstood the blunt comments and criticisms from the director and the tedious process of countless different warm ups. We'd talk in between scenes, at the water fountain, while we waiting for rehearsal to start. Then we weren't so strange to each other anymore, but we still weren't as one.
And then opening night would come. We'd all murmur to each other behind stage, buzzing with nerves and excitement. We'd organize our stuff, wrestle with costumes, and right before we opened the doors we'd gather together and warm up. Those same tedious exercises became a lifeline, a ritual that bound us all together. And then the doors would open. We'd sit down the guests, listen to the pre performance speech, wait for the lights to go out, and get in our places.
On opening night it didn't matter where we were or what we were doing. Whether we were patching up our costumes or performing on stage, waiting backstage or covering up for a missed line, on opening night we were one body of performers giving our best to the audience. And when it was all over we'd gather together on stage and take a final bow. As one.
When I used to go to church, my ministry had annual trips to Haiti because my church sponsored a school there. I decided to go when I was 10. The school that we sponsored was the one of only 3 schools in the area, so it was very important. It was in the mountains, but people still walked all the way there to educate their children. There was a village really close by and there was also an urban neighborhood in the city. Our ministry lived in a house close to the urban neighborhood. One day, I realized that our ministry was not getting any weird looks or stares like I expected. It was because half of my group had already been to Haiti maybe 3 or 4 times. Our group was also liked by many of the Haitian people. It was so surprising. I didn't know that people who lived so far away would be accepted this well. It was heartwarming seeing our community and their community unite and help each other and learn to love each other.
ReplyDeleteEvery year, my street has a tradition of hanging up lights on the trees during the holidays. My family has seen this every year, and it was one of the reasons we moved to our apartment 5 years ago, because it seemed like such a community. This year, it was cancelled due to COVID and other economic issues that made it hard to pull off. However, administrators from all of the buildings coordinated and lots of people donated money. The lights ended up going up, and so many people came out to help. It was very unifying, and reminded me that we can still hold true to our traditions despite obstacles.
ReplyDeleteSakari
ReplyDeleteEveryone else's are so heartwarming, but last year I joined CAMBA for an after-school program with my math teacher for regents. The day I happened to show up, they were offering handouts for a sign-up sheet to attend Anime-Con on a Saturday. I signed up and I bunch of kids (and some of my friends) came and we went to have fun. It was great to see all the cosplays and artists and stuff to buy, and I still have photos taken and the lanyard I got and the little artist pieces I bought. Overall it was really fun and it really brought me closer to my friends and the anime community as a whole.
When my class in middle school held zoom calls together once school shut down it was a very unifying experience. Even though our teachers didn't have any live classes the students still worked together to set up zooms to keep everyone connected safely. It was something that really made those first months of quarantine not so bad, and was so heart warming to see an effort made to stay in touch with my classmates.
ReplyDeleteAn event that brought me and my community together was in middle school when my school's green team (that I was a part of) had a candygram for Valentine's day. We got a bunch of candy and then had people sign up to give the candy and a message to whoever they wanted (which included teachers) and then they paid a dollar. (the money we raised went to improving the way our school composted.) It was a really nice time because it brought the whole school community together and helped us appreciate each other.
ReplyDeleteA recent memory that had a unifying effect on my community was probably the assertion of Biden becoming president, because my racial community wont be a large target discriminated against publicly, and we will be given more opportunities instead of racism as a whole Hispanic community.
ReplyDeleteI remember at the start of the pandemic, when things were just starting to hit and everybody was realizing the level of severity this pandemic was, where a lot of the hospitals were overwhelmed with patients, and there was a need to "flatten the curve." Although it was sort of "virtue signaling," the 7PM clapping in the neighborhoods for the healthcare workers were really nice when they occurred in those first few weeks of the pandemic, where there was a bunch of uncertainty on what to do. There was a sense of community, how we were ALL trapped inside, and that we weren't alone in this. In times of the unknown, hearing others cheer and try to brave uncharted waters together had a unifying effect on many neighborhoods and blocks around here.
ReplyDeleteAn event that had a unifying impact on my camp was probably covid-19. In the beginning of the pandemic, my camp would have zooms weekly with many of the counselors and campers. I don't really talk to many campers or counselors during the school year, I stay in touch with my age group and that's basically it. But these camp-wide zooms brought us all together during a v very scary time, and I think it unified the camp.
ReplyDeleteDuring the start of the pandemic, at 7:00 sharp every evening, all my neighbors would ring bells, whistle, etc. in support of the essential workers and those who caught COVID. It was really surprising and somewhat jarring (but in a good way) to hear the tolling every single day.
ReplyDeleteOn the day that Biden won the election, and the last few states were confirmed to have voted for Biden, there were so many people clapping and whooping. It also happened (though it was less loud) today, right after Biden was sworn in.
ReplyDeleteDuring the pandemic, this city has been really gloomy and not really that fun to be in. However, when Biden was projected to be the 46th US president, everyone went out on the streets cheering and ringing bells and honking horns. The city was so upbeat as we had enough of the last president's damage to this country.
ReplyDeleteAn event that unified my community was probably when people would cheer at 7:00 PM every night in support of essential workers. It was a nice thing to bring my neighborhood together.
ReplyDeleteThe pandemic had a unifying effect on my community, I was able to see some people that I called neighbors and never even knew existed, I was able to make some acquaintances within my neighborhood, while also healing and forging some old bonds.
ReplyDeleteAn event that brought my community together was I guess during the pandemic, at 7:00 for a while, people would cheer outside and make noise to celebrate and honor the essential workers and the people who made the world a better place. So that brought us together and had a unifying experience for us all.
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit more on the sad side of events but the death of a student in my middle school brought us together intensely. When he passed, everyone was able to put aside their differences and remember him the correct way. As a tribute to him, we ran a marathon through the west side of Manhattan.
ReplyDeleteFor me, at my school, our science teacher would keep some of us back for after the school day. Now, this was only a portion of a portion of a portion of my community, but it defintelly felt like "yes, I am a part of a larger group of people all doing things together."
ReplyDeleteA recent experience that really unified my community was when, during the pandemic, at 7:00 PM, everyone in the Tribeca area began cheering and making noise using pots to show our gratitude to the essential workers. You could see people on rooftops and through their windows all cheering. During a time without much human contact with the outside world, this was something that everyone could do. It also felt good that our community, working together, was giving an essential worker a morale boost. Though this is a small act, I think it really unified my community.
ReplyDelete