Community
The Missouri Good Neighbor Week 2024 ended with over 31,000 documented acts of neighboring and five cities worthy of the title ‘most neighborly city’ in Missouri. Residents are encouraged to keep the spirit of MO Good Neighbor Week alive by continuing to track and document acts of kindness at missourigoodneighborweek.com. It is not a surprise to hear Excelsior Springs is neighborly, we see examples of kindness all the time!
The Surgeon General has declared isolation and loneliness to be epidemics in the United States. Connecting with our neighbors is an effective strategy in combatting isolation and loneliness. The Surgeon General’s webpage has lots of tips and even a booklet called Recipes for Connection that is loaded with ideas, tips and recipes to help us connect with our neighbors.
When I was a kid, my family celebrated May Day. May Day is a celebration of the beginning of Spring and is remembered on the 1st day of May. It is customary on May Day to anonymously leave a small basket of flowers on a neighbor’s doorknob. We had a couple of widows who lived on our street that we often remembered on holidays. My mother helped me prepare the small paper woven gift baskets with flowers.