What kind of time do you have for your community?

Tonight I’m doing my second night patrol of my neighbourhood within a week. I can use the exercise, but the streets around my home could also use the attention.

There are a committed bunch around here. The people were perhaps the biggest attraction for me when we bought into Mountain View.

As much as I can, I try to devote a bit of time each month to something that contributes to this place. Most often it’s just getting a garbage bag and collecting litter on my block. The night patrols are great too. It’s only an hour or so, and you really get to know the people around you.

Recently I just put in about 3 full days to create a neighbourhood website. I buried myself away for a whole weekend while my wife was understandably annoyed about losing me again. At least this job is done. I’m proud of the work. It has many photos of this great part of Vancouver that my family and I live in.

See the website here:
www.mountain-view.ca

How do we encourage a contribution of time from others in the community? Time is valuable, and we need to appreciate those who give it. I tend to think that if you ask people to help, most of the time they’ll step up. If you provide an example (I must look like a nut out there with my bag and tongs picking up candy wrappers and bus transfers), often others will follow.

Mountain View has a committed group of volunteers. It’s a small group, and I think we’re just scratching the surface in identifying who wants to get involved. I hope the website helps.

I’ll let you know what happens.