McPherson High School
McPherson, Kansas
Teacher: Robin Long
My Connection to the Community
By Wesley Heter
12th grade
What is community? Community to me is a group of people that all have something in common with each other or that live around the same area. A community can be all different sizes. Community’s are everywhere and there are thousands of them. Even in a little town like McPherson there are many different communities. Communities can also separate people into different groups. There can be rich communities, poor communities, and pretty much any kind of people are separated some how.
In many ways people get involved and contribute to their community. People contribute to their community every day and they don’t even know it. Sometimes people even get money for their contributions that they make to the community. People contribute to the community by going to work everyday, by helping people that are in need of help, and also with the money that they spend on things in the community. I contribute to the McPherson community in many ways. These ways are by doing community service, by the money I spend in town, and also by working in this town and making people food that they order.
In my community I did community service to contribute. For my community service I went to Hutch and mowed my grandma’s yard. Then I took all the grass clippings and hauled them away for her too. I also had to get a lot of firewood for my mom and dad and haul it to the house and stack it up for the winter. When I went out to my grandpa’s house I helped him with all sorts of chores that he had to do.
Another way I contribute to my community is by all the money I spend on things in this town. I spend at least twenty-five dollars every day or every other day on gas for my car or on other people’s cars. I probably spend the most money in this town on fines. I have about $2500 in fines that I’m going to have to pay to McPherson. I eat at fast food restaurants and gas stations about every day and spend money on food and drinks. Every month I have to give my mom money that she spends in this town. I help other people contribute to the community too.
Also by having a job in McPherson I contribute to the community. When I worked at Braums I was getting people their food and change for their money. So I was contributing to the [economic] community…. I also had to clean tables and take out trash. I worked at a firework stand also. I had to keep up the stock of the fireworks and set up and take down the stands. Anybody that has a job contributes to the community….
This is my involvement with the community. Everybody should get involved in their community sometime in their life. It’s not hard and it shouldn’t take much of one’s time. One could just go and help out an elderly lady with some things around the house or just a little bit of yard work or something. Doing the above for one’s community will make them more friendly because they will have to deal with people. Plus, then people in the community will like them more and they might get to know more people also.