“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead. When a person thinks of changing the world, what most likely comes to mind is a cure for cancer, or something that seems completely out of range. To an ordinary citizen these tasks seem impossible, out of reach, and discouraging. What many do not realize is that changing the world does not have to be something out of reach. When people come together to do a big task, the work is small, but the outcome is extraordinary.

August 25, 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s strength peaked and left numerous towns on the Gulf Coast in shambles, waiting for help. A group of people from Olathe, Kansas, headed down to Louisiana to help the citizens affected by Katrina. The stories these people can tell, the bonding that not only happened inside their group, but also with the citizens of the coastal towns, was incredible. The relief work the people did was hard, but hearing the victim’s stories around them made it well worth it. Having so many relief workers in the area made the task easier. Soon, a multitude of different individuals with different backgrounds from Ethiopia to Kansas to Louisiana were finding common ground in sharing the love of helping each other. The towns in Louisiana began to be well on their way to making a full recovery from hurricane Katrina because of small committed groups like the people from Kansas. The task would have been impossible to complete alone but because so many groups came every year the sites that were worked on became more safe and stable.
May 22, 2011, disaster struck in Joplin, Missouri, leaving citizens scrambling for basic necessities, they were in need of help. The damage in Joplin after one full year was still very existent. Saint John’s hospital was still standing, just as it was the minute debrief stopped flying. The nine-story building was moved two inches off it’s foundation because of thetornadoo. Water heaters and picture frames could be found in forests near old residential areas. Along with all of these things, however, there were hundreds of relief workers itching to help and listen to stories the people had to offer. There was a 90-year-old lady waiting to tell her story to whomever she could tell. The color in her voice as she told it was enough to send goose bumps down a person’s back. The old woman literally held on to her porch railings so she would not fly away in the winds. Many people went to move her into an apartment similar to the one she was occupying when the storm hit. It was guaranteed that the woman stopped taking her life for granted. Her story gave the people helping her perspective, and a task that seemed tedious and repetitive became something the people were honored to do. Joplin received so much help from groups, big and small, bonded together with a common goal, and in the end, all the people made exponential progress in helping the victims of the tornado.
Disaster doesn’t always have to strike unexpectedly for a place to need help. In the inner cities of New York, a group of one hundred teenagers from Kansas came together to help those in need. The high school students that were rivals during the basketball and football seasons, became co-workers and friends through their work. A group of students began to paint apartments for women who were pregnant as teenagers in Manhattan. These students heard what it was like for these women, and what they went through in their daily lives. The work that these people were doing was indirectly helping the youth of the future, and their peers that were affected permanently by something that happened in the past. The other group of students worked to fix up a church that would soon be supplying a food shelter for the neighborhoods around it. The work these teenagers did would soon affect a multitude of people in Harlem in need of food. All the tasks that needed to be completed were finished by the hard work of one-hundred, motivated teenagers. These students were persistent in completing their goals, and two huge tasks were completed by a group of hard working people.
A big group of individuals can change the world through a series of small tasks and can impact hundreds of lives. The act of kindness can build on itself and create something truly amazing that will change the world. Being apart of these small groups that did relief work and watching people’s lives change has been a blessing.