Believe it or not, I sometimes have writer’s block and can’t find the words to write. I believe this blog is a direct connection to the fitness industry, and I take it seriously as if I were giving a Ted Talk. Therefore, to find inspiration, today I went to ted.com.
I browsed the website for an inspiring video, but simply stumbled upon videos I’d already seen. I guess that means I’ve spent too much time watching ted.com. Anyhow, I finally settled on Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005. His speech tells three stories of his life, which inspired me to focus in on one story of my own that I find inspiring.
Although we live in a world that discusses the demise of the newspaper industry, I actually received my first jobs at newspapers — first a weekly in Kaunakakai, Hawaii, and the second at the Journal Review, a daily in Crawfordsville, Ind. Therefore, I see a great value in local newspapers and community journalism — much like you see the value in a community gym or fitness center (I see the value in those as well).
When I was in my mid 20s I was working as a beat reporter for the Journal Review, a small community newspaper that had served its community for more than 100 years. It was situated right in the center of town, just like a newspaper should be. The location I worked in actually was its second location built inside an old armory.
In my mid 20s this newspaper was the pulse of the town. Regardless if something great occurred or something horrible happened, it was inside our pages. Our staff was top notch, full of a bunch of writers all looking to get their feet wet in media. During this time our nation was struggling horribly with the recession, and our small little town was no exception to its wrath.
In the year that I was at the newspaper I was witness to so many layoffs I can’t even estimate a number. I listened to people discuss true hardships — families unable to have three meals a day, let alone buy Christmas presents.
One day I got a phone call from a local pastor whom I was trying to get an interview with. He said he was really busy, but if I could meet him at a certain church for lunch he’d give me some time to talk.
At lunch I arrived at a small church that probably wasn’t 2,000 square feet in size. When I walked in there were about 30-40 people sitting around a table eating lunch, getting ready to speak. I took a seat next to a pastor I already knew and asked what was going on? No one really knew too much at the time, but what we didn’t realize was that we were sitting in on the first of many meetings that would alter the life of the community.
Since the first round of layoffs, citizens had developed a local food bank. However, the churches didn’t know much about the food bank and neither did the family resource agencies in town. The leader of the food bank explained that since more layoffs had occurred, there weren’t enough people to work the food bank, and they were beginning to see empty shelves. At the time, the food bank was only open once a week on Wednesday.
Finally, one of the pastors spoke up and asked how they could help. The answer was simple, but loaded. They could encourage their members to help. I vigorously took notes detailing the need and who was willing to help out. I also had the number of citizens that were currently volunteering and how others could volunteer. Additionally, I discovered that a few soup kitchens had also opened that were willing to coordinate with the food bank.
When I arrived back at the Journal Review I wrote about this secret meeting between local pastors throughout Crawfordsville, Ind. and Montgomery County as a whole. I used quotes that told of a need and what the leaders wished would happen. I discussed the food shortage and the need of more volunteers. I highlighted the four areas throughout Montgomery County that would also accept food donations and make sure it was circulated to the food banks that were most in need.
My story, which was initially written for the faith page I had to cover, ended up becoming front-page news. It was the first of many articles I would write over the next six months discussing the needs of the city and how people could help out. When the first story went to print the food bank was open one day a week and was on the verge of closing its doors. When my final article went to print almost eight months later, the food bank was open five days a week and had to put volunteers on a waiting list. More food banks had opened throughout the county and a person could find a soup kitchen open each day.
The point of this story is two fold. First, you may simply be chasing your own personal dream when you find yourself in a position to do something great. If you pay attention to what’s around you, you might be able to really help change your community, state, country or the world.
The second point is to realize that cooperation can do wonders. It would have been very easy for a couple of pastors to refuse to support the one food bank because they wanted to launch one of their own in their own church. However, they saw how working together with other churches to raise up one food bank would do the community a much greater good.
I know we are all in the business of making money and gaining members. However, if you think long and hard enough, there is probably a way you could work with other fitness professionals in your city to help make your citizens and community more fit. If you could change one life, wouldn’t it be worth the effort?
Tyler Montgomery is the editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.
