All About You FRIDAY – Community

I just returned from a week out west, a place where it is easy to be moved. Where you can feel very small amidst the Grand Teton mountain range and wide plains. Where the grandeur of nature takes your breath away at every turn.

But one of the most moving things I witnessed was Mormon Row, a community established in the late 1890’s by Mormon settlers traveling from Idaho. Unlike the western settlers of the day who commandeered large plots of land for their farms and lived in isolation, the Mormons set up their homesteads in a cluster in order to share labor and community.

There was no irrigation for their crops, so they banded together and dug levees and dikes to funnel water from the Gros Ventre River to each of their fields. Some of these levees still survive today.

Ultimately, they built 27 homesteads in this area, a church and a school with some of the structures still being the most photographed in Jackson Hole. Despite the short growing season and harsh conditions of the area, they were able to survive more than 30 years.

Community. It matters. Being a part of building something goes beyond the obvious. Community can:

reverse patterns associated with mental health struggles
help you feel less alone
hold you accountable
offer you support
give you purpose

This time of year, I band with my community at Free Bikes 4 Kids Detroit where we collect over 3,000 bikes and over the course of two months, clean, fix and restore them to riding condition. It is a daunting task and every year I think, “There is no way we are going to get this all done.”