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Live United by Erin Haag

Last Wednesday, I woke up in the zero dark thirty unable to sleep. Finally, I decided to get up. I worked in my home office, feeling accomplished at the speed I was clearing through emails and working on some record-keeping tasks for the financial side of things. Before I knew it, my household was up, and we were off to the races. I had a full day of work planned, a pantry to get started and the ball games.

One ball game was canceled in anticipation of storms. Another had the coaches waffling, and we wondered if the rainfall between 4 and 5 p.m. was going to ruin the field. I was frantically flipping between two different weather apps, both showing very different radar, fielding calls from a coach asking my opinion and creating backup plans for the Albert Lea versus Albert Lea post-game pizza party that I was in charge of. At 3:30 p.m., we were told that the fields were no longer in playable conditions, and it was out of our hands. But what about those backup plans for the pizza party? Could we at least do that?

Fifteen minutes later, as I’m about to call our training huddle, the sirens went off. Already, I knew there was a shopper walking down the street to be here for their 4 p.m. opening appointment. Volunteers asked where my kids were. My husband was texting me. I fielded the texts and made phone calls to my children and our nearest neighbor/surrogate grandparents as I walked onto the porch to check and see who might be outside walking or waiting in their car. The surrogate grandparent village kicked in, and my kids were safe and sound with adults we highly trusted.

The sirens were going off, and everyone was crowding onto the porch with me to look at the sky and talk about the weather. I’d say the scene was about as Minnesotan as you could get — except it was also about as Kansan as you could get. I’d say Midwestern, but when I moved here, I was informed that Kansas was not considered Midwestern, it was South. I shooed everybody inside, volunteers and shoppers alike, and the pantry went on.

We debated briefly about closing, but the pantry is so fast paced, it’s difficult to reach others to tell them not to come. Even with our mass communication systems, not everyone gets the message, and we ultimately decided that we were in a safe spot, and we’d be there to open the door and bring others inside.

About 7 p.m. I decided that since I wasn’t on a ball field, I’d try to catch the end of the ISAIAH Social Safety Net Roundtable event that was happening. I figured I’d sneak in the back and listen for half an hour or so. Whelp. That turned into me walking in and being immediately asked if I wanted to speak. I tried to quickly wrap my brain around exactly what the agenda was but figured I could listen and get settled and then say a few words. I asked, “do you want data or anecdotal? I was told, “Oh a little of both. Great! You’ll be next and you have three minutes.” So much for me getting settled.

The only thing I’ve ever been able to do is to share my story. So, I did. I told them that during tornado sirens and in between rainstorms, that over 40 households traveled on foot, by bike and by car to come shop at the pantry. I told them that we see new shoppers all the time, with a whopping 69 new folks coming to find services in May. I talked about how different our pantry looks these days, noticing one of my volunteers nodding her head in agreement. In the way of life, I thought of a million things to say afterwards. To be honest, I don’t remember most of what I said. There’s a video out there, which I’m intentionally not going to watch so I don’t judge the sound of my voice or my messy hair. What stood out to me, though, were some of the questions asked. Some powerful stories were shared. I was happy to see members of the City Council sitting at a table listening to these stories. I know that some of our council members struggled a bit with the idea of what to do about the concerns that were brought up during the Safety Net conversation.

Afterwards, a board member and I chatted about another event that I’m working on in the fall. She asked how we could get people who need to attend. Our intention isn’t to create an echo chamber. Our intention isn’t to change people’s minds. The intention of that upcoming event is to find middle ground. To connect with others, beyond politics, and to bridge the gap. It’s a great question, but the adage of leading a horse to water but you can’t make him drink comes to mind. I don’t think we need to stress about how to make people attend. All we can do is provide opportunities to learn, market the event well and make it a neutral, welcoming space. We’re being intentional with our language, our location, our timing. A former board chair of mine was very much my mentor in many things. I can clearly hear his voice telling me, “give them the opportunity.”

For those that are planning events for this summer and fall centered around social issues, for those that are calling for action at county, state and federal levels, for those that are asking how to bring others to the table, for those wondering what exactly you can do to help, here’s my answer for you:

Give them the opportunity. If you’re invited, take that opportunity. Come join the conversation, come join us at the table. Keep showing up, keep listening. Pick up the phone and invite someone to sit at the table alongside you. We might not solve the world’s problems, but if we keep talking, keep providing the opportunity, we can create solutions right here at home. United Way will be showing up, and we’ll be creating opportunities for others to show up. If you’d like to learn more about those opportunities, give me a call at 507-373-8670.

Erin Haag is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.