I knew that when I started writing this article, I wasn’t going to get an increased number of shares like we aim to achieve each week. I’ve figured out that when you write about personal favorites and experiences, the people reading aren’t as interested in sharing your story, but for this week, I am asking you to share not for me but for who has touched my life and forever changed it.

Each July, for the past 37 years or so, around 66 people load up a bus, 13 cars, and four trailers from Flemington, New Jersey and take a 12 hour drive to the small impoverished town of North New Portland, Maine. We set up tents and volleyball nets, frozen casseroles and air mattresses, and sort out the tools we will need for a week of hard work and repairs. For the past six years I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a part of this amazing organization, which is called Volunteers in Mission, or VIM for short. I have been touched and taught by so many of the people in this small town. Many would argue that we are the ones who are supposed to be helping the people of North New Portland, but for some reason I think they’ve done more for me. It’s hard to truly put into words the magic of this experience, so bear with me as I attempt to do so.

The part of the trip that I help organize and manage is the vacation bible school part. I’ve watched some of these young children grow over my years of being there and even though it’s hard to relate sometimes, their love is so genuine and so pure. In this town, blood doesn’t always matter. Some of these families have upwards of 11 people or so in homes that shouldn’t even allow a family of four due to its condition. But they take in whoever needs help. I’ve learned from them that you should treat everyone as family and encourage each other in every aspect of their lives. This is something the people in the areas that I come from tend to forget. Modern age has made it easy to hide behind a keyboard and text message, but I am asking you: when is the last time you helped the struggling older man with his grocery bags in the parking lot? Or pulled over on the side of the road to see what was wrong with the person who was there first?

The world is forgetting how to be a community. So why do the people who have so little do it, when the people who have so much can’t? I am blessed to know the families and friends of North New Portland, Maine; they have given me my humanity and humility, a treasure I can never truly repay them for. So I just keep going every year to their homes to do what I can, for who I can, as long as I can.