This ancient proverb always stirs images of pioneer barn-raisings by neighbors helping neighbors.
Is that community spirit a casualty of the modern age? Has everyone retreated into their respective three-car garages and self-absorbed iPhone worlds?
Thankfully, during this holiday season there are many examples right here in the Ozarks of those who are take time to help others.
Recent examples
On back-to-back weekends in November, two downtown community groups representing more than two-dozen volunteers sacrificed a Saturday morning to host a cleanup day.
The Downtown Springfield Community Improvement District planted new shrubs and flowers on Park Central East and Park Central West to help prepare the area for the holiday shopping season. The West Central Neighborhood Alliance worked with the city of Springfield and the Urban Neighborhoods Alliance to fill four large dumpsters with leaves and limbs from more than three dozen properties across the neighborhood.
Also, Cornerstone Church donated its large holiday lighting displays for Park Central Square, and the church volunteered its staff and youth group to assemble and stage them. The displays are a gift to the entire Springfield community, rekindling memories of the impressive Christmas window displays in the department stores during the 1950s and 1960s.
A much larger issue than preparing for the holidays was the police and fire pension sales tax vote. The Citizen Task Force gave up its summer to learn about the issue inside and out. The Springfield City Council, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, members of the police and fire unions and hundreds of concerned Springfieldians helped disseminate information and encourage people to vote. Their dedication and hard work paid off with a surprising 55-45 margin at the polls.
Applications for small businesses
American entrepreneurs have banded together for the public good since the days of Benjamin Franklin. As a Philadelphia printer, he initiated several collaborative ventures, including a library, volunteer fire fighting company, the Academy and College of Pennsylvania (which would later become the University of Pennsylvania), the postal system, a night watch and militia for safety, and a group called the Junto, a young working-man's group dedicated to self- and civic improvement.
While these pursuits improved his community and enhanced his own intellectual growth, they also allowed him to dramatically expand his network of prospective clients and new lines of business.
Modern examples of civic organizations for business leaders include merchant organizations such as Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Springfield Association, Commercial Club and Historic Walnut Street Association; community development corporations such as the Urban Districts Alliance, Urban Neighborhoods Alliance, and the Springfield Finance and Development Corp.; community improvement districts; and service clubs such as Rotary, Sertoma, Kiwanis, Lions, Masons, Shriners and North Central Betterment Association.
Through these relationships, group members are reminded that the free market is most effective when its citizens are adequately fed, housed, educated and safe.
Springfield prepares for a new decade facing many daunting challenges, including creating thousands of well-paying jobs, addressing what has become a much too prevalent culture of poverty, and increasing the diversity of its work force and population. Business leaders will be at the forefront of these issues, and civic organizations can be the melting pot for their talents, dedication and compromise.
Two John Heywood proverbs come to mind: "Rome wasn't built in a day," and "Nothing is impossible to a willing heart."[[In-content Ad]]
Rusty Worley, executive director of Urban Districts Alliance, can be reached at rusty@itsalldowntown.com.
