One of my favorite memories this year will be walking in the Albert Lea parade with the Leaders Partnering to End Poverty group.

I’ve walked in the parade before, but it’s usually been a blur with the large crowds and trying to keep my anxiety over large crowds in check. But this time it was different. Maybe it was the group. Maybe it was the message. Maybe it was me. I just found myself connecting on a different level and it was really nice.

We often live with a crowd mentality. We tend to spend our days walking past large crowds of people not really noticing their differences or what makes them special. It’s easy to do when we live in a Point A-to-Point B world full of checkoff lists and tasks to accomplish. I am saying this because it’s how I live — trying to fill too much in every day. Though we’re productive, we miss out on so many opportunities to connect.

I admit there were many times during the walk when I passed by crowds of indistinguishable faces, trying to keep up with our float and not fall behind, but I couldn’t help but notice the children, standing up front in eager anticipation, so excited to connect with the “celebrities” walking in the parade.

They were so dear, I found myself crying at the end of the day, thinking how all children want to do is to connect with us, but often we are too busy for them. It’s the children who are so prominent during events like parades but so often forgotten when we live in the crowd mentality.

It’s often the case when we think of poverty, individuals get blurred in to a crowd. What we think we are, we will become. What others see us as, we will become. Each person has a story and each person has potential to become more. Yet, when we live with a crowd mentality, we strip away that potential and isolate people in to generic characteristics.

One of my fellow walkers encountered a person along the walk who said of people in poverty: “They need to get a job.” My friend kindly responded that there is so much more to it than just getting a job and graciously invited the individual to attend Jodi Pfarr’s presentation on July 23 at the Albert Lea High School auditorium.

There is so much more to the problem than just helping someone find a job. Recently I heard of a woman who did get a job but had no car and no means of transportation, so there was a call out to find a donated bike to help her support her two children. We’ve had people come in to our office at United Way who had a job but no place to live, or no one to watch their children, or simply no one to offer support or good advice in the midst of life’s challenges.

We can lay blame on people for not succeeding in life, but many times people haven’t had the same opportunities as the rest of us, beginning in childhood. According to the 2011 U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty measure, one in five children or more than 16 million children, were living in poverty. This is higher than any other age group.

Studies have shown that children who grow up in poverty tend to remain in poverty. It’s a cycle that is hard to break. According to Columbia University’s National Center for Children in Poverty, “45 percent of people who spent at least half of their childhood in poverty were poor at age 35. Among those who spent less than half of their childhood in poverty, just 8 percent were poor at age 35.”

This is something we can’t ignore. These are children who are very much their own individuals, with dreams for the future and much potential, if we allow it.

Lift one. Lift all.

Ann Austin is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.