By Corinna Wiemerslage
Have you ever heard the saying, “The people who have the least, give back the most”? This saying is not always true, but it is a fantastic idea to give back to the community you were raised in or currently live in, a local business and different charity organizations.
Giving back to your community will allow your community to continue to survive and thrive. One way you can give back to your community is to volunteer your time to different organizations. Whether it’s donating to work at a food stand or helping at an animal shelter, your time is greatly appreciated. Donating your time can make a world of a difference to an organization. Helping your neighbors is also a way to give back to your community. You could do the simple gesture of mowing their lawn, making them a desert or even just shoveling a path of snow for them. Everyone in your community might not know about the random act of kindness you did for your neighbor, but both you and the neighbor will know. It will also give you a feeling of happiness inside of you knowing you gave back. One last way to give back to your community is to participate in a fundraiser. It could be as simple as reading books to young children or helping during a bake sale. It is very easy to find ways to give back to our communities, and it should be something a person wants to do.
Giving back to a local business is also important to keep a community alive. You can give back to a local business by shopping local. It is important to support and help local businesses so that your community can grow. It is also important to shop local because a lot of the time, the businesses that you shop at also give back to the community’s school by donating money to the school organizations. The local businesses also provide jobs that employ people from the community. By shopping locally you tend to build a friendly relationship with the workers. Studies show that over 50% of the working population are employed by local businesses. The business only stays running because of the people who shop local. One other statistic states that after 15 years of starting a local business, only a quarter of them will still be open, because of a larger corporation’s competitive prices. It is important to shop local because a study shows that about $68-$73 out of every $100 is kept in the community, by the local business buying from other businesses in the community.
Giving back to charities is important because it will benefit people who are in need and will go towards a good cause. There are many different non-profit organizations that help people in need. Some examples of giving back to charities include donating food, donating clothes, giving a monetary donation, or giving your time to a charity organization. A food shelf is a non-profit organization that allows people to stretch a limited food budget. An easy way to donate to a food shelf is to give your local school canned goods during a time when they are collecting. You can also donate food to your local food shelf. If you choose to donate some clothes, that will provide clothing for people in need. A monetary donation also helps people in need. A lot of different organizations accept donations online. Donating to a charity will make sure that the item or money you donated goes to a good cause.
It is important to give back because it will make you feel good, it will help your community and if you were in need you would want to receive the help. It is important to shop local because it will help your local businesses grow and they also help the community stay strong. So the next time before you leave your house to go purchase an item, think, does any local business have this item for me to purchase?
Corinna Wiemerslage is a student at Kingsland High School. She is one of eight area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 21st year.