Since I was five years old, I have believed in community. In those very early years, I organized a pony club and an animal effort to end cruelty to pets held in captivity who were being abused in my neighborhood.
For the last 32 years, with my dedicated and wonderful team, I have continued this community work by publishing North State Parent magazine.
The mission of the magazine is to nurture families and help build strong communities where they can thrive. But it takes all of us to create a community in which to raise healthy, happy families. It takes mega doses of neighborliness. It takes a moment to share a smile, to let someone go first in line, to help an elder cross the street. It takes care and the desire to help.
That’s why we fill our pages with ways you can engage in your local community. When you support our advertisers that support us in this important work, you help create a healthy, strong community life for children and families. From attending local and regional field trips to volunteering at an animal shelter, we have all sorts of ideas for building community listed in our pages. Please share us with others. We are not AI. We are local caring parents trying to make a better world.
As Phetsamone Jenny Varsnoh says in the article on page 29 regarding the Lao community in Weed, “You just must start with you. A little change, a kindness, a little humanity, goes a long way.”
For decades we have published monthly magazines and updated a family-friendly calendar of enriching and educational events (you can find this on our website). We show up at family-friendly events and often offer free art projects for children to help engage families. We even circulate a weekly e-news reminder about fun things to do with children. (Subscribe to this invaluable newsletter at northstateparent.com/newsletter.)
We invite you to join us in being agents for good in our North State communities.
Here are ideas to help our North State community, including our own individual neighborhoods, to flourish. Let’s work together to promote good.
- Hire young people for odd jobs
- Barter with friends and neighbors
- Share your garden tools
- Bake extra and share with neighbors
- Organize a block party
- Support local swim centers
- Grow flowers and share with elderly neighbors
- Support community gardens
- Ride a bike through your neighborhood
- Attend local school group fundraisers
- Share your own skills readily
- Pay for a neighbor child’s swim lessons
- Support Farm Markets in our region
- Read to children – your own and others!
- Support libraries and children’s programming
- Volunteer at an animal shelter
- Volunteer for a youth sports team
- Play four square or catch on quiet neighborhood streets with kids; invite your neighbors!
Posted in: Featured
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