Our View: Want some good news, just look around
If you look around the globe, it might seem like the world is spinning out of control, coming unglued, falling apart.
If the events in Paris, Beirut and Mali have you worried, we suggest changing your focus. Take a look at Modesto.
There were two events this past week that should allow all of us to take heart, even to smile.
First, the annual Kettle Kickoff. We’d like to say this is a uniquely Modesto event; but that’s not true. It started that way 23 years ago, but since then it has grown to towns and cities across the nation and even to other countries.
More than 1,100 people sat together for a Thanksgiving feast at Modesto’s Centre Plaza on Thursday with the sole purpose of helping others less fortunate. They were raising money for the Salvation Army and its myriad programs, many (but not all) based at the Red Shield Center.
The event was the brainchild of two people who have passed, but will not be forgotten as long as this event continues – Bette Belle Smith and Hugh Barton. They started small with an event at Vintage Faire Mall. But nothing Smith did remained small for long. Now, the Kettle Kickoff is one of Modesto’s largest charity events of the year.
As such, it was an opportunity for people to have fun. Teams of “bell ringers” traipsed through the hall in what looked like conga lines as showers of dollar bills rained from the rafters. All of those bills ended up in the buckets, with a whole lot more.
Sutter Gould Medical Foundation started it off with a check for $20,000, but from there the race was on. In all, the Salvation Army raised more than $189,000 – not as much as it had hoped for, but certainly a significant amount.
One of the towns with its own Kettle Kickoff is Turlock, and bell ringers there raised about $58,000 on Thursday.
All of that money will be used to create a better “today” for those in greatest need.
What about the future?
Stop worrying about the future; we’re going to be in good hands. The 19 prize-winning essayists in the American Heritage Essay Content convinced us of that. Their essays were the best of roughly 140 submissions, according to a panel of judges – real judges, the kind who sit on the Stanislaus Superior Court bench.
Wearing anything from T-shirts to dresses to hoodies and sandals, they paraded to the podium to receive congratulations Tuesday night. As they arrived, each spoke briefly of their aspirations. One wants to be a neurologist, another an engineer, a surgeon, a dentist; one wants to cure cancer and another become a missionary. There was also the “renaissance woman” who hasn’t decided yet, and the girl who suggested she might just “run off to join the circus.” (Her father then suggested such pursuits would have to wait until after college.)
These are incredibly bright, well-spoken young people unafraid to think about difficult subjects, do the research and then put their thoughts down on paper. What we asked them to write about each year are their fundamental rights as Americans. The winner, Kara Liu of Beyer High School, said she would have been happy just to have won the lowest prize. So they’re modest, too.
As Modesto City Schools Superintendent Pam Able said in dismissing the group: “You are amazing!”
She was right; they are.
But they aren’t alone. There is much about Modesto and Turlock and Oakdale and every other community in this region that is amazing. Sometimes we need reminding, especially when the rest of the world isn’t.
This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 7:20 PM with the headline "Our View: Want some good news, just look around."