Missouri Good Neighbor Week has always been about more than being friendly.
It is about doing something.
From Sept. 28 through Oct. 4, Missourians will perform acts of neighboring, gather with people who live nearby, serve their communities and find creative ways to strengthen local connections. And this year, University of Missouri Extension councils and partners across the state are helping lead the way.
The projects look different from one community to another. That is exactly the point. Good neighboring should reflect the people, opportunities and needs of a particular place.
In Greene County, the extension council is using food as a reason to gather. Council members will host a special Table Together potluck at the Springfield Botanical Center with Extension Council members, county commissioners, parks leadership and others. But the most important thing on the menu may be conversation. Participants will take part in a “Head, Heart and Hands” activity to discover the talents and skills of those around them and identify shared interests that could lead to future collaboration.
Other councils are using Good Neighbor Week as an opportunity to meet practical needs.
In Cooper County, Extension is collecting canned and boxed foods, pet supplies and books for the free-will pantry in downtown Boonville. During Good Neighbor Week, those donations will stock the pantry, while businesses and community groups will be encouraged to join the effort.
Jefferson County is addressing food insecurity among both traditional and nontraditional college students with a food drive for the local community college student food pantry.
In Pulaski County, Extension collected hygiene products for the local CASA program. Those items will be distributed to teenagers in need—a reminder that neighboring sometimes means noticing people whose needs may otherwise go unseen.
Warren County has an ambitious intergenerational project underway. Extension is partnering with Warren County 4-H, the Warren County Senior Center and Meals on Wheels to create care bags for senior citizens. Youth and Extension volunteers will pack the bags before they are distributed through the senior center and Meals on Wheels. Organizers hope to provide at least 100 bags, with a stretch goal of 300.
And in St. Charles County, an effort to remember members of the military has become a year-round project. Residents are creating Christmas cards for soldiers serving overseas, with an impressive goal of more than 6,200 cards and card signers.
Meanwhile, MU Extension Urban West, the City of Independence and Extension Master Gardeners are partnering on Love Where You Live: IndeCleanup. Volunteers will work in parks and public spaces throughout Independence, planting, pruning, improving landscapes and tackling invasive plants while sharing horticultural knowledge.
What I especially appreciate about these projects is that none of them requires an elaborate new program.
A council can convene a meal. Fill a food pantry. Collect hygiene products. Remember a soldier. Pack a bag for a senior citizen. Clean up a park. Or simply create a reason for people to work alongside one another.
The activity is the invitation. The relationship is the real outcome.
That is one of the central ideas behind Missouri Good Neighbor Week. Service becomes even more powerful when it introduces people, strengthens relationships and reminds participants that they share responsibility for the place they call home.
And when Extension councils help make those connections possible, Good Neighbor Week becomes more than a week on the calendar.
It becomes Extension doing what Extension does best: bringing people together to make Missouri communities stronger.
David Burton is a community development specialist for University of Missouri Extension with a special focus on neighbors and neighborhoods. He was the editor of a weekly newspaper from 1989 to 1994.
