When Committees Become Communities

The year was 1942.

Milton Tipton had just died. It was May and time for the spring planting in Clark, South Dakota. My grandfather and other neighboring farmers brought out their horses and farm equipment and sowed seeds for a future harvest for Milton Tipton's family.

The year was 1957.

My grandfather, Nels Wika, was recovery from surgery and unable to do the planting. Again, the farmers came to a neighbor's aid. Enough years had passed that the horses had been retired and tractors came to the small South Dakota farm to plant the grain.

The men who came in 1957. (My grandfather is 5th left in front.)

The women who did the cooking. (My grandmother is wearing the scarf in the back row with her head turned.)

Many lament that the time of neighbors helping neighbors is gone, that the "good old days" are precisely that-- days in the past, a piece of our history, never to be repeated. That we live in "a world that promotes distance, builds fences, buys locks, and doesn't talk on elevators." (Richard Swenson in Margin.)

This can be true, but it doesn't need to be the way we live our lives.

The year is 2012.

A small group of people in Chandler, Arizona organized an event that raised over $200,000 for the American Cancer Society through their local Relay for Life, an increase of 37.4% from the year before. The group received awards for having the most Grand Club Members (people who individually raised $1000 or more), 1st Runner Up in Top Fundraising in Arizona and #2 Online Event Award for fundraising online dollars for their relay.

But the top award came this week when Chandler Relay was awarded the All American Award as the #1 Relay in the Nation, thanks largely to Joe Keresty who put together the 24 page application. It was the first national award ever given a Phoenix-area Relay.

Unfurling the banner announcing the new award.

The Chandler Relay for Life has caught the eye of the American Cancer Society at the state and national level. Everyone is wondering what we did to become so successful.

I personally think it is because, somewhere along the line, after working together for a year or longer, our committee has become a community. We have each hooked our horse to the plow, so to speak, in order to get the job done. We have discovered, what I believe each person is looking for, a life of purpose that involves joining hands with others.

How a Committee Becomes A Community: The Five C's

(Taken from Joe Keresty's application and used by permission, although Joe said he took it from somewhere else, but since I couldn't find the exact match on Google, I'm giving Joe credit.)

1. Compassion: Where people put relationships before results.

Everyone on the Relay committee has been touched by cancer in some way. We celebrate each other's cancer successes and come alongside each other during treatment and recovery.

2. Consistency: Where people will not bend under pressure but remain committed. 

Week after week, email after email, phone call after phone call, day after day, the committee shows up. According to Mike Perry, Relay Chair, the answer can be found in the last verse of the Hokey Pokey, "You put your whole self in...."

3. Cooperation: When people recognize the need for one another.

Turf wars are minimalized when everyone realizes they need one another to accomplish a task that is too big for individuals to accomplish alone. Cancer is too big for me. I need you. And you. And you need me.

4. Commitment: Where people put the cause before comfort. 

We only have to look into the eyes of our fellow cancer survivors to remember why we are involved in this fight. We never forget.

5. Courage: Where people will do what is right for the betterment of mankind.

I want to see a world without cancer for my children and grandchildren. If I can do anything to make that happen, I will consider it time and energy well spent.

Friends helping friends is not something lost to the "good old days." People are still joining hands to accomplish a goal collectively that is too big to do individually. We might not be plowing fields, but we are still sowing seeds in our communities, hoping for a harvest of change.