McPherson High School
McPherson, Kansas
Teacher: Robin Long
Communities Within Communities
By Becky Paramore
12th Grade
… How do citizens know what community is? It is different to everybody. Some people do not like their community, so they do not participate in [it]. …People need to try to participate in their community at least once.
The definition of community is a group of people who come together in the same place and work on projects and care for each other. Some examples are McPherson’s, church, clubs, and organizations. The McPherson community is the community that I live in.
To help in a community one could pick up trash along the street or one could volunteer for a community project could do community service. The community wants to help out the elderly as much as [it] can. The elderly need some help with transportation to get around and could use a taxi system. People need to get around, but if they can’t, they call a taxi and they will take them.
The church community is a great one to help with. People feel good when they know that they just helped a family or some child that is needy. …The club community can be different. It could be a club in school or a club dealing with the community…. Clubs or organizations, as people like to call them, help people who are in need. One organization that comes to mind…is [the] Red Cross. Another organization is Locks of Love, which help people out who, have lost their hair [due] to cancer.
How do citizens personally feel community? Community can be felt at home. People’s families care about being together…. If one of them is not feeling well, then the rest of them help. Another way community can be felt is through clubs, by doing club projects together…. People might also feel community while going to school if they have a clique that they hang out with. If people do not have a clique to hang out with, then I guess people will not feel community at school. Some people could even feel community at their job if they like who they work with.
What have I done in [my] community? I am in Drama Club and I have been in a church community. I go caroling with my church. A group of us went over to a nursing home and sang for the residents there. The group that I went with went to the Senior Center to sing to them. That is [one] way people could volunteer for their community. Some people have fun volunteering for their communities. People do community service just because they want to make their community better for the children. The children are basically what the community cares for. They also want the elderly to have some place to hang out with each other, and to have a place to live when they can’t take care of themselves anymore.
People [experience] community without knowing it. When people mow their lawn they are [participating in] community…. Kids even help out their community by throwing away their trash….If we didn’t have community we would be a group of people living together….
Cops also help out our community although some people don’t like them. When they hand out tickets, they are doing their job to protect the citizens that live in this community. There is [even] a community…made up of plants and animals that interact with each other. Community can be made up of people [with] the same common interest or background. [Community] could also refer to the public or society in general. Therefore, the word community means something different to everybody.