‘Catch them doing something good.’

Some scenes from around the country of people we're thankful for, as they set creative examples for us all.

Poster on the National Mall, from the Citizen Historians newsletter.

Dear Friends of Our Towns,

For this Thanksgiving week, we’ve put together some happy and uplifting news for you to share around your dinner tables. And boy, do we need it.

We were inspired by a friend of ours, a former teacher and librarian, who recently reminded us of what she described as a basic classroom management tenet: “Catch them doing something good.”

Applying that idea from the classroom to reporting from around the country, we have definitely caught citizens engaging in positive, creative, good things on behalf of their communities and even the country.

We visited two small towns in South Dakota, Spearfish in the west and Vermillion in the east, working as part of a statewide effort to prepare students to become “lifelong citizens.” Students and residents talked about the importance of participating and contributing to the well-being of their schools and towns.

In Jacksonville, Florida, we participated in a Ten Across “convergence” of three groups of unlikely collaborators: philanthropists, bureaucrats, and actuaries, who were representing community foundations, government resilience and sustainability departments, and Florida insurance companies. Over two days, they discovered many overlaps in interests, goals, and philosophies. They came up with ideas for projects, and they set out next-step plans for working together.

In our hometown of DC, we’ve been tracking the impressive work of a new group, the Citizen Historians, who are offsetting the directives of the Trump administration to review the contents of the Smithsonian Museums for sentiments that misalign with the current administration’s idea of the “American Story”.

Over 1500 citizens took cell phone pictures documenting some 50,000 items in the museums, stopping only when the government shutdown closed museum doors. Now, they are back at work to finish the job, for the record and for posterity.

In the Cleveland, Ohio, area, we have been reading The Land, an online journal, for a few years now, and appreciating the work of the over 100 citizen journalists who were trained and mentored by local professional journalists. Who could know better the stories that would be important and resonant with their neighbors? And could inform them and encourage them to take local action to solve problems and make improvements in their towns and neighborhoods?

One citizen journalist’s story particularly caught our eye was about the Citizens Police Academy (CPA) in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood. The CPA strengthens rapport between the police and residents through a 12-week course that introduces the public to all aspects of policing, from jail visits to crime scene investigations to ride-alongs.

All these efforts, and so many more, are answers to the question we’ve heard more and more often in the last many months: What can I do? How can I have some effect.

We celebrate all these examples, which together express the advice of the late Jane Goodall: Do what you can, where you are, when you are able.

You can read the full report at the Our Towns website here.

From Our Towns to yours, from our house and family to yours, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.