A Measure of a Community’s Strength
Muriel Cole • September 28, 2021
When someone has been given much, much will be required in return.
~Luke 14, v:48
That could have been the theme for the first annual Kent County Volunteer Fair held on Sept. 11 in conjunction with the Chestertown Farmers Market. Thirty-seven non-profit organizations displayed opportunities for those wanting to volunteer, and hundreds signed up. The variety of offerings was impressive: working with disadvantaged children, sick people, the disabled, dogs and cats, houses needing mending, houses needing building, music, adult education, performing arts, visual art, literature, history, human rights, gardens, emergency response, environmental conservation. And the enthusiasm and turnout were stunning.
Sample comments:
--Well done job by all of you. Larry Lyons, Chestertown Lions Club
--We had so much fun at the volunteer fair on Saturday, thank you so much for hosting!! Jessica Carey, Kent County Family YMCA
--Thank you and your volunteers for organizing this event. It was a big success for us, and I expect the other organizations feel the same way. I can't think of a better way to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Barbara Ellis, Pets on Wheels
Mayo Clinic research has identified benefits of volunteering such as:
- Volunteering decreases the risk of depression
- Volunteering gives a sense of purpose and teaches valuable skills
- Volunteering helps people stay physically and mentally active
- Volunteering may reduce stress levels
- Volunteering helps you meet others and develop new relationships
- Volunteering may help you live longer. Notably, an analysis of data from the Longitudinal Study of Aging found that individuals who volunteer have lower mortality rates than those who do not, even when controlling for age, gender and physical health.
For retirees, we have a choice as to how we spend that precious resource: time. After decades of work that may not always have been fulfilling or pleasurable, we are now self-directed. What are we most interested in?
There is always a need for volunteers. Some jobs require a lot of experience and skills, but many require none and actually contribute to one’s experience and can be a significant learning opportunity to strengthen skills. For many local non-profits, the donation of one’s time may be more important than a monetary donation, and may be easier for many of us to give. Like a buffet, there is something for everyone.
Sometimes we may fail to acknowledge the impact of volunteer service and the power of volunteers to come together to tackle tough challenges, and build stronger, more resilient communities.
Muriel Cole is Co-Chair of the Kent County Commission on Aging and was, for ten years, a volunteer long-term care ombudsman for Upper Shore Aging, Inc.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
More than 30,000 of our neighbors in Maryland’s first congressional district will lose their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid because of provisions in the GOP’s heartless tax cut and spending bill passed last week.
Right now, Congress is working on a fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs in order to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.
The House Agriculture Committee recently voted, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as $300 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, helping more than 41 million people in the U.S. pay for food. With potential cuts this large, it helps to know who benefits from this program in Maryland, and who would lose this assistance. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compiled data on SNAP beneficiaries by congressional district, cited below, and produced the Maryland state datasheet , shown below. In Maryland, in 2023-24, 1 in 9 people lived in a household with SNAP benefits. In Maryland’s First Congressional District, in 2023-24: Almost 34,000 households used SNAP benefits. Of those households, 43% had at least one senior (over age 60). 29% of SNAP recipients were people of color. 15% were Black, non-Hispanic, higher than 11.8% nationally. 6% were Hispanic (19.4% nationally). There were 24,700 total veterans (ages 18-64). Of those, 2,200 lived in households that used SNAP benefits (9%). The CBPP SNAP datasheet for Maryland is below. See data from all the states and download factsheets here.
Apparently, some people think that the GOP’s “big beautiful bill” is a foregone conclusion, and that the struggle over the budget and Trump’s agenda is over and done. Not true. On Sunday night, the bill — given the alternate name “Big Bad Bullsh*t Bill” by the Democratic Women’s Caucus — was voted out of the House Budget Committee. The GOP plan is to pass this legislation in the House before Memorial Day. But that’s not the end of it. As Jessica Craven explained in her Chop Wood Carry Water column: “Remember, we have at least six weeks left in this process. The bill has to: Pass the House, Then head to the Senate where it will likely be rewritten almost completely, Then be passed there, Then be brought back to the House for reconciliation, And then, if the House changes that version at all, Go back to the Senate for another vote.” She adds, “Every step of that process is a place for us to kill it.” The bill is over a thousand pages long, and the American people will not get a chance to read it until it has passed the House. But, thanks to 5Calls , we know it includes:
Let's talk about our Eastern Shore Delegation, the representatives who are supposed to fight for our nine Shore counties in Annapolis, and what they actually got up to this session.
For the first time in recent memory, Virginia Democrats have candidates running in all 100 House of Delegates districts — a milestone party leaders and grassroots organizers say reflects rising momentum as President Donald Trump’s second term continues to galvanize opposition.
