You Don’t Need Permission to Care

Because of my work at the Chamber of Commerce, I attended countless meetings over the years. Whenever the opportunity arose, I would bring up the need for a proper bus shelter. People agreed it was a good idea. Heads nodded around the room. Everyone seemed supportive. And then…nothing. No plan. No project. No funding, No action. Then one afternoon, everything changed.

Around lunchtime I noticed a woman standing near the bus stop. When I left the office several hours later, she was still there. Concerned and curious, I walked over to see if she was alright. She told me she was returning home from New York after receiving cancer treatments and was waiting for her connecting bus. She had spent the better part of the day standing outside, exposed to the weather, with no idea where to find amenities.

In that moment, the bus shelter stopped being an idea and became a person. It was no longer an issue that “somebody” should address. It had a face, a story, and a name.

If no one else was going to be that “somebody,” then I would. There was just one problem. I had absolutely no idea how to build a bus shelter. I knew nothing about permits, easement agreements, construction requirements, funding, or regulations. If someone had asked me where to begin, I honestly couldn’t have answered, but I started anyway.

What I discovered that day is something I’ve seen repeated countless times over the years: when someone genuinely commits to improving a community, they are rarely alone for long. People with the right skills begin to appear. Businesses offer materials. Skilled tradespeople donate their expertise. Organizations stepped forward.

There were plenty of people willing to help. They were simply waiting for someone to take the first step. Once someone did, the project became everyone’s. Today, that bus shelter provides travelers with a place to sit, protection from the weather, and a little more dignity while they wait. But perhaps the greatest accomplishment wasn’t the structure itself, but the reminder that one completed project often inspires another. Momentum has a way of spreading. One person decides to care, and suddenly others discover they care too.

After more than 20 years at the Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce, I’ve come to realize that nearly every improvement we enjoy today, from the downtown Lewistown planter project to community events and countless other efforts that have strengthened our Juniata River Valley, began because someone refused to assume that somebody else would take care of it.

That’s one of the reasons I’ve become such a strong supporter of community leadership programs which incorporate community projects. When people experience the satisfaction of making a place they love a little better, they’re much more likely to do it again. Service has a way of becoming contagious.

Communities don’t become stronger by accident. They become stronger because ordinary people invest themselves in the places they call home. It’s easy to spend years moving between home and work without ever becoming deeply connected to the community where we live. They live there, but never truly become part of it. They occupy a place, but they never truly invest themselves into it.

Healthy communities require people who choose to put down roots. Like a tree, a community grows stronger when people become connected to it. They draw strength from the place they call home, and in return they give something back. They support local businesses, volunteer, mentor young people, coach youth sports, serve on nonprofit boards, organize community events, and quietly solve problems that might otherwise go unnoticed.

The beauty of community service is that you don’t have to be an extrovert, dynamic, wealthy, influential, or an expert to make a difference. You simply have to care enough to begin. You don’t need all the answers before taking the first step. You don’t need permission to care. Every meaningful improvement around us exists because someone decided that waiting wasn’t good enough. Someone looked at a problem and decided to become the solution.

The next time you hear yourself saying, “Somebody should do something about that,” I hope you’ll pause for just a moment and ask yourself, is that someone me? Because the future of our communities doesn’t depend on extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. It depends on ordinary people deciding to care enough to act.  After all, every park, every festival, every restored building, every trail, every scholarship, every fountain, and yes, even every bus shelter, exists because someone decided not to wait for “somebody else.”

Perhaps the “somebody” your community has been waiting for has been you all along!

Rhonda S. Kelley, Executive Director, Juniata River Valley Chamber of Commerce