ME vs. WE
For those of you who weren’t able to attend the ribbon cutting for the Park Haven Learning and Recovery Center, you missed out! What a great gathering of people celebrating a collaboration between Avera, Lewis & Clark Behavioral Health Services, Yankton Medical Clinic, the State of South Dakota and so many others who came together to create an environment of healing, compassion and hope.
Projects like this don’t happen on their own. Hundreds of hours were contributed by people who planned, advocated and envisioned what women, children and families need to create a more stable path for their lives.
What struck me that day was that none of it was about any one individual. It was about community and serving others.
Too often, when a project or initiative receives public funding, I hear some version of, “Why should my tax dollars pay for that? It doesn’t impact me.”
The reality is that every community investment isn't supposed to personally benefit every individual. Sometimes the value isn't found in what it does for me, but in what it does for we.
Park Haven, like most nonprofit organizations including Yankton Thrvie, relies on grants, public funding and contributions from businesses and individuals to provide its services. Most of the people contributing to those organizations will never personally need the services they provide. But that doesn't make those services any less valuable to the community.
The same principle applies well beyond nonprofits. Maybe you don't have children in school anymore, but strong schools matter to the future of our community. Maybe you don't use a particular park, trail or recreational facility, but quality-of-life amenities help us attract and retain families and workers. Maybe you don't own a business, but investments that help businesses grow create jobs and generate economic activity. Maybe you will never need addiction treatment, affordable childcare, housing assistance or emergency services, but someone in our community will.
And sometimes the return on a community investment may not even happen during our lifetime. The Yankton County Commission is exploring the complicated question of how sewer infrastructure could eventually serve areas west of Yankton, and how that could impact development below the bluff, above the bluff or some combination of the two. It is the kind of conversation that requires us to look beyond what Yankton County needs today and think about what our community could need decades from now. The same concept applies to the Yankton Community library. Investments made decades ago have served us well and it is time to consider how the next generation will be impacted by our visionary decisions.
Infrastructure isn't particularly exciting. Few people attend a ribbon cutting for a sewer line. But roads, water, sewer and utilities determine where communities can grow. Decisions we make—or fail to make—today can create or limit opportunities for generations.
It reminds me of planting a tree. You plant a small seedling knowing it will take years before its branches are large enough to provide much shade. You water it, protect it and invest in it even though someone else may ultimately receive more benefit from that tree than you ever will. That's community. A strong community needs people willing to plant trees whose shade they may never sit under.
But there is an important difference between asking, “Is this a good investment for our community?” and asking, “What do I personally get out of it?” If personal benefit becomes the only measure we use, very little would ever get accomplished.
Someone before us invested in the schools we attended, the streets we drive on, the parks our families enjoy, the infrastructure that allowed our businesses and neighborhoods to develop and the organizations that make our community stronger. In many cases, they never experienced the full return on those investments.
We did. Now it's our turn to plant some seedlings.
We may enjoy the shade from some of them, while others won't reach their full potential until long after we're gone. That's part of building a strong community—having the vision to invest in something today because we believe it will matter tomorrow.
The strongest communities are built by people willing to plant trees knowing someone else may be the one who enjoys the shade. It requires us to look beyond our own needs, think about the generations that will follow us and recognize that what we build together will always be greater than what we build for ourselves.
Because when it comes to building a community, WE will always be stronger than ME.
