By Collin Quigley, AmeriCorps Member & Volunteer Coordinator
Part of me is always going to be in the driver’s seat of my rented Nissan Pathfinder (or “Rocky” as we nicknamed it), trudging up the hilly, unpaved peak of one of Appalachia’s many mountaintops. It was a beautiful afternoon last March, where my spring-break immersion participants were singing along with “Home” by Phillip Phillips in the packed SUV. On that mountaintop, I was reminded that the only thing you can see from that high in the Appalachians is more mountains yet to be climbed.
Something I learned years ago, when I first met the Appalachians as an Eagle Scout, is that descending the mountain can be more difficult than finding your way up. In March, I think a lot of us were forced to climb down from the mountains we were on, whether we had reached the pinnacle or not. Another hiking lesson I once learned was the most frustrating part of the hike came in the valley, in the flat distance between linked mountains in a range like the Appalchians. For me, the time I spend in a valley is often used to thinking about what I am going to do to climb the next mountain. While every mountain may be different, we can take the same approach to different situations.
Jimmy Carter’s schoolteacher Julia Coleman once said that “we must adjust to changing times and still hold true to unchanging principles.” Here at Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery and Delaware Counties, that idea has been one we have held onto during these challenging times. In my short time as the Volunteer Coordinator for Habitat MontDelco, I quickly learned our old ways of engaging volunteers from massive crews on build sites to hundreds of community members coming out for Rock the Blocks were not in the cards.
We know that need for fairer, more affordable housing cannot wait for this pandemic to be over. So, we searched as an affiliate for new ways to engage our volunteers and serve families in need. What we came up with is a new program for Habitat MontDelco that we are calling “A Brush with Kindness.” Through “A Brush with Kindness,” we paint porches, beautify lawns and yards, and do the small work of revitalizing communities, one step at a time.
These outdoor projects provide a new, safe, and meaningful way for the work of revitalizing communities to be accomplished during these changing, challenging times. Yet, through this program Habitat MontDelco is holding true to our commitments to the community we serve through these changing times. Many of our first A Brush with Kindness projects were originally planned for our April Rock the Block in Pottstown. Unfortunately, the world had other plans. Still, Habitat has completed many of the projects that homeowners still wanted accomplished. We know that community engagement requires more than one-offs and photo opps, but having our boots consistently on the ground in the neighborhoods we partner with. Our growing A Brush with Kindness program will enable us to continue relationships with communities we have long served and extend our circle of compassion to communities we are working to serve more closely.
A story I often tell to volunteer groups and campus chapters came from one of the college spring breaks I spent in Eastern Kentucky. Every night, our volunteer coordinator Kevin would run through all of the service sites the 28 of us from Boston College would split up to the next day – working on Glady’s roof, heading to Mountain View Elementary to work with K-4 literacy, etc,. At dinner, Kevin would hype up all of the sites before we would race to sign up for which ones we wanted. During breakfast the next day, Kevin would run through the sites again, but in a more calm manner before ending his morning pep talk with the same instruction each day: “go love our people.” There is a range in the acts of service performed with A Brush with Kindness projects from raking leaves outside a community center to planting flowers for one of our veteran families. However, all the work we do is a service to others in need, rooted in our commitment to put love in action to build homes, communities, and hope in Montgomery and Delaware Counties.
On an A Brush with Kindness day, I find myself doing a lot of running around between moving supplies to properties, checking in with volunteers, and making sure our hardworking volunteers have their next meal ready. During our most recent ABWK day in Pottstown, I had a lull early in the afternoon on one of our sites with our CEO Rebecca. As our volunteers were conversing with our homeowner Melissa, Rebecca reminded me that “now that’s the important thing. They’re all going to leave her with her story.” These times of social distancing can be isolating for all of us. In sharing our stories with one another, I think all of us are reminded how intrinsically human we all are.
While one A Brush with Kindness Day might not change the world, or even change the world for one family, it is a step along the way to a new beginning for all of us. From the work we do, we plant seeds that we know hold promise and lay foundations that will one day be developed. A world that is more just, loving, and kind will not over happen overnight, but slowly takes shape through continuous small acts of kindness by that exquisite mutuality that reinforces that all of us belong to one another. The mountain to climb for a world where everyone has a different place to live is steep, but one we scale bit by bit, with one brush with kindness at a time.
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