August 17: Tell us: What does community togetherness mean to you?

Community togetherness is people helping people or sharing common interests. We see this in organized events for charities, school activities or the love for local teams. I my area one is expected be a Miami Dolphins fan for football, a Marlins fan for baseball and a Heat fan during the basketball season. Deep down inside I am still a Redskins fan; sometimes it is hard to give up the communities we once belonged to!

Community togetherness can be represented in small local groups; by helping out someone who lives nearby with health issues or other needs, or it can be a global endeavor that unites us all; such as the international help given to the victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Nothing brings out community togetherness more in South Florida than hurricanes. When we are threatened by large storms, we often see the best in people; albeit not all. As a storm approaches the lines in the gas stations and stores do sometimes find a bit of nerves that are expressed in anger and discord; but for the most part people realize that we are in it together and help each other out.

Once a storm hits and it is survived; there is usually no power (sometimes for days) people tend to really unite. These storms have shown me the best in people and made me feel that when all is said and done I do live in a community I can count on; as divided as it may be by political beliefs or other social barriers.