I have often said that one of Darien’s riches is its spirit of volunteerism. Our city is home to civic, social and service groups that work to enhance our community through the services and financial support they offer to our residents. Each of these groups are composed of volunteers who give of their time in planning and implementing community activities, conducting fundraisers that support those activities, and providing financial support for those in need. Over the years, many of these groups acted independently of one another, and while their efforts accomplished great things for our Darien community, it became apparent to me that if we could bring these groups together, working together, we could accomplish so much more for our residents. As Idowu Koyenikan states, “there is immense power when a group of people with similar interests get together to work toward the same goal.”
In January 2022, we invited the leaders of each of these groups to come together and discuss the types of services and activities we could provide, if we shared resources and worked together to enhance each group’s activities. We didn’t ask groups to stop conducting their regular yearly activities, we simply asked the question, what more could we do if we worked together, where possible, on each of these activities. From that discussion we developed our Darien Community Action Committee, and over the last two years we have tried to meet one Saturday each month planning activities that brought individual groups together in support of one another. Our Darien Community Calendar, the Darien Historical Society Tree Lighting event, the development of the Darien Arts Council into a more prominent group and our Oktoberfest Celebration were each outgrowths of this movement to work together in order to enhance our Darien living experience. This spring, we will be mailing home a City of Darien “postcard” that will contain the dates of all of our city activities over a three month period, and we will be mailing one of these home to our residents every three months, so that you will have an idea as to what and when a specific event is occurring.
As Henry Ford stated, “coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” Our Darien Community Action Committee is dedicated to working together; while we have been together over two years, we have so much more to accomplish on behalf of our residents. We will continue to look for ways to share ideas among our community groups that we feel serve the best interest of our residents and work to make Darien a nice place to live. As Margaret J. Wheatley states, “there is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” The Darien Community Action Committee definitely cares about providing our community with an enriching living experience.