All Giving is Local
Hanna and I owe our passion for travel largely to the desire to see every corner of the world and chase every fish that swims, but a nice byproduct of that quest is that we get to meet many people who are not like us. Some of our greatest lessons in life have come in remote areas of Brazil and Africa, as well as in metropolises like Tokyo. The people there have forced us to reconsider our assumptions and to embrace cultures different than our own.
We’ve tried to repay their graciousness and their lessons by being good stewards of their resources. We’ve made it a point to travel exclusively to lodges that are invested in the local communities – like Bear Trail Lodge in Alaska, where owner Nanci Morris Lyon fought vehemently against the Pebble Mine project, and Casa Vieja Lodge in Guatemala, where their “Kick Plastic” campaign represents the leading edge of angling responsibility. Whenever possible, we try to contribute directly to those efforts and to the communities.
Despite our wanderlust, the greatest lesson we’ve learned during the COVID-19 pandemic is the power of your local community. We live in Vienna, VA, a suburb of Washington, DC, with a population of about 16,000 people. That’s not quite Mayberry, and while Vienna has far more pros than cons, I’d never think of us as embodying the best of small town life. It’s a busy place, with no “town square” per se, and under normal conditions residents are headed into the city, or to the technology corridor near Dulles airport, or to the skyline of nearby Tysons Corner to work every day. Perhaps if we had kids in the school system, or if either of us had gone through that school system ourselves, we’d have had a greater sense of “hometown” feel prior to 2020.
Yet it was this year – which, ironically is the one we’ve spent the least amount of time out and about in Vienna – that we finally fully valued our neighbors. That lesson came not through one-on-one contact, or through some shared activity, but rather through the much-maligned platform of Facebook, where we encountered a group known as “Vienna Foodies.”
Arguably, Vienna Foodies was started to give locals recommendations about where to get the best restaurant meals locally, but it quickly expanded to take on other roles. As the pandemic spread, it became a clearinghouse to tactfully describe how some local eateries were suffering and to recommend that we patronize them when possible. Simultaneously, it expanded to send meals and other assistance to food-insecure families in our region.
The person who has inspired me the most in this process is a woman named Lydia Russo, one of the co-founders of the Foodies. I’ve never met her, but she continually amazes me, and frankly I’m not sure how she finds enough time to accomplish everything that she does with only 24 hours in a day. If she had just organized one food drive, or one charitable donation, I’d be impressed, but every time I expect her to rest on her laurels she performs two or more three acts of kindness.
For example, during inauguration week, as unrest settled on the Capitol, she raised $20,000 in donations to feed National Guard heroes serving in DC, along with 400 thank you notes/cards from local kids. She was sure to cite the many local individuals and businesses who contributed items including: over 500 cakes, 300 cookies, boxes of hand warmers, boxes of toe warmers, freshly-squeezed juices, 100 grilled chicken salads, 100 cupcakes, 100 sandwiches, 80 orders of dumplings and 60 barbecue meals. She also coordinated meals and treats for the Capitol Police and announced that there were more on the way from other local businesses.
I’ve seen professional organizers and committees who work all year to put together these types of benefits, and then (justifiably) bask in their accomplishments. Lydia and her “team” could have done so, but this was just one in a series of giving moments, and I’ve learned not to be surprised when the next one is announced. Indeed, a few days before her announcement about the efforts for the National Guard, another Vienna Foodie member “celebrated” the MLK Day of Service by distributing over 100 free lasagnas to needy families and shelters in the region. That same week the group coordinated a GoFundMe for a beloved local business that was suffering. In a news article, I read that the foodies sent pajamas to a recovering cancer patient. If you can make it through the pictures of delectable food on the Vienna Foodies Facebook feed, you’ll come across one example like this after another – and the efforts extend beyond just our town. Indeed, the most contagious thing this year in our community was not COVID, but rather the spirit of giving.
All along Hanna and I have been looking in communities far from our own for lessons about how to live better – and our travel bug has not abated one bit – but the greatest lesson we learned in 2020 (continuing into 2021) is that community is as much about mindset as it is about geography.
