OPINION: Build on community strengths in 2024

Vicki Hyatt, The Mountaineer, Waynesville, N.C.
·4 min read

Dec. 27—The end of the year is a time of reflection. For me, it starts with what's happening globally, then nationally, and the pondering time is short. As much as it is necessary to keep up with things, thoughts swiftly turn to all that's close to home — and within the realm of our influence.

For me, that realm has always been community. While I've written about people right here in Haywood who have made a difference at the regional and state level, their level of passion and commitment is rare but it was so deep it became a force for the greater good.

Most of the rest of us concentrate on building a better community in smaller ways, but there are so many people in Haywood dedicated to this goal that the end result is stunning.

Start with the church communities. Last count I heard, there are about 150 in the county and each congregation pours its heart and soul into serving the Lord by helping those in their midst.

You can see that in the effort to serve the elderly, help young families struggling to make ends meet and contributed to efforts to keep our citizens warm and fed. As they work to spread the good news, they become the good news, and, for that, we are all better off.

Then there are the nonprofits in our midst that are a Herculean force when it comes to making sure those who are struggling can receive a hand up until things get better.

Think of the multiple agencies that offer food resources, whether it is in the form of free pantries where people who work all day can stop in to pick up supplies, a school-operated program to ensure children can learn better because their little bellies aren't empty, places such as The Community Kitchen where both groceries and an evening meal are available, the free food pantries operated by several churches and the largest food distribution effort in Western North Carolina that's at Haywood Christian Ministry. I'm convinced there are enough food resources in this county that it would be rare for anyone to starve to death.

Then there are nonprofits that don't shy away from the hard stuff such as addressing the homeless issue. Look at the success of the Haywood Pathways Center and the overwhelming community support it has received as it strives to upgrade its nearly decade-old facilities that were formerly a state prison and 100 years old when they moved in.

An anonymous donor has offered to provide $180,000 as a dollar-for-dollar match to improve and operate the center. Readers of The Mountaineer are on track to provide $90,000 of that match. What a testimony to people dedicated to making their community a better place to work and live.

In Haywood, we elect people who care about the community, and when there is a choice to take bold steps that will make the county a better place not just now, but down the road, that's what they opt to do.

Lastly, but perhaps more importantly, the caring nature of this community starts at its basic core — its people. While government, nonprofits and churches might be the cornerstones of a solid community, the people within are the bricks that build the foundation, walls and roof.

That's happened in Haywood thanks to a long history of salt-of-the-earth families who have passed on a sense of hard work and caring for the community through the generations. If people are the bricks of a community, families are the cement that holds it all together. Future generations take their cue from what they learn in the home, and parents most often teach their children from the base of what they know and what's worked well for them.

While that seems to be a sign of hope for the future, there are also signs of cracking. Worldly influences have a magnetic pull and in the past decade, we've seen increasing signs of the cement flaking away with drug use, deaths of despair even among the very young, and a society that is turning inward as it increasingly interacts through technology rather than in-person.

Change is inevitable and often is good because there are certainly things from the past we don't want to see perpetuated. Hopefully, as this community moves forward in 2024, that change can be tempered so it blends the rock-solid goodness of the past and present with the promises every new year holds for the future.