Days in the Lives of a Community

This past weekend was so busy, I didn't get a chance to mention two very important events. I was honored to be a part of the anniversary celebrations of the Upper Gwynedd Fire department (the West Point Volunteer Fire Company) and Boy Scouts of America Troop 610 in Lansdale.
The Fire Company, still all volunteer after all these years, celebrated 100 years of people in the community coming together for the Common Good. The old leather bucket among the memorabilia was a perfect metaphor for the day -- the simple notion of a community passing the bucket along to fight a fire as each in his turn did what he could, always recognizing that it was the joint action, the coordinated response, that made it work. It's inspiration to watch these firefighters of today, men and women, highly trained and high tech now, with fire engines that function like mighty mechanical horses, go out to meet whatever challenge comes after a call for help.
The other event I wanted to note was the fortieth anniversary of another volunteer organization, Boy Scout Troop 610 in Lansdale, which celebrated their milestone with an "alumni" dinner, photos of boys camping, hiking, earning merit badges and clowning around for the last forty years. Once again, it's forty years of volunteers, men and women in the community and their boys, coming together to learn that "Character Counts," and what the boys learn in Scouts will provide them with a compass bearing for life's challenges as long as they live.
These groups are what makes a community great. Heck, corny as it might sound, they are what makes a place a community at all.
Kate Harper