A whole lot of inspiration this week

Fran Ostendorf, EditorI’m not easily impressed. Call me a cynic; maybe that’s the traditional journalist in me. It takes a lot for me to say, “Wow, that’s impressive,” let alone be inspired.

However, I was truly inspired last week when I saw the list of accomplishments of the community members who received awards at the Heroes of Faith breakfast sponsored by the Rhode Island State Council of Churches.

I was there covering the event as a journalist. A member of the Jewish community and The Voice team received an award. Rabbi Jim Rosenberg, as you may have already read on this week’s cover, received the Hebert W. Bolles Life Achievement Award.

As I sat, listening to the welcoming speeches and the introductions of all the award winners, I began to think about how truly amazing these people are. Pastors and community members, young and old, from diverse backgrounds, they all share awards for their service to greater Rhode Island’s underserved: local people who are homeless, battered, down-and-out, hungry. These award winners are working for charities, in shelters, wherever they can make a difference, and make the lives of our neighbors a little easier.

We all have tremendously busy lives. So do these award winners. But they have chosen to use whatever extra time they have to help others.

Rev. Mary Margaret Earle is the associate director of McAuley Ministries, a nonprofit providing basic needs to the hungry, homeless and poor. There, she says, she sees adults every day gather the courage to ask for simple things like bus fare to a doctor’s appointment or help learning to read and write.

Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Williams has chosen to work in a part of Providence where young people need help turning themselves around. By building his church in one of the city’s most impoverished areas, he can tell his young congregants that there is a cause, a reason to do good.

And Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts has spent so much effort working to implement healthcare reforms so that places like the Providence Free clinic aren’t overrun with uninsured community members. There is still a need for the clinic, but there are so many more insured people that the clinic can now handle the requests for its services; it no longer needs to hold a monthly lottery.

Now those are all inspirational stories and inspirational people.

And, remember, this is just one organization presenting awards. There are other awards and many other people in our area doing a lot of good work. I’ll bet none of them even thinks about an award when they set out to help. After all, tzedakah is its own reward, isn’t it? In fact, it’s an obligation and a duty in Judaism. During the High Holy Days, we repeatedly hear that tzedakah is one of the three ways that we can be forgiven of our sins.

So perhaps we can all draw inspiration from the heroes in our greater community and find some way on our own to give back, to offer our own tzedakah. Whether it’s making a financial contribution to a favorite group, a donation of canned goods to a food pantry or offering time to any number of organizations that helps others, we all have something to give. The inspiration I’ve received from the people I encounter as editor of The Voice pushes me to step back a bit and remember that time is precious, but there’s always a little more of it to spread around.

As we head toward the season of Thanksgiving, remember that we have a lot to be thankful for.

The quote at the top of the program for the “Heroes of Faith” breakfast really says it all: “Everyone can make a difference”