TOLEDO, Ohio — The upcoming presidential election may cause tension and stress for many. That's why more than 30 organizations are coming together to lighten the mood through the Neighbor to Neighbor initiative.
In an announcement at the Glass City Metroparks Glass City Pavilion Wednesday, Reverend Gayle Catinella of St. Michael's in the Hills Episcopal Church was leading the kindness charge.
"We have invited everyone because we're a community together," Catinella said. "It's bigger than any one thing or any one group. We're all interconnected, but we play to our strengths. We each bring something to the table."
During the initiative announcement, Lucas County Metroparks and TARTA made declarations of support for the communitywide election year peace initiative. They agreed it's best to challenge everyone to commit intentional acts of kindness. Examples were given such as taking out your neighbor's trash or paying off a school lunch debt.
There are faith-based organizations, large medical corporations, colleges and community outreach programs all in support of this initiative. So it seems there's no separation of church and state when it comes to this intentional focus on kindness in talking about the political climate. Rotaract Club of Toledo president, Alex Huffaker, who also works for TARTA, said it's an intentional move.
"Toledo's experienced such an amazing time of collaboration amongst many different organizations and peoples," Huffaker said. "So I feel proud and confident that this is a great initiative to be attached to."
Catinella said she understands everyone may not want to be kind to everyone, but challenges everyone to focus on some sort of positive change in themselves in whichever ways they want.
Huffaker said these societal divides didn't just start because of recent politics. He blamed the pandemic and COVID-19 as the reason for years of layered separation and added there's no time like the present to change.
"They're still wearing that or hiding behind that COVID mask, or not. So I think it's a great way to bring people together to remind people we're not in the pandemic anymore," Huffaker said. "While that's still a concern, we need to move forward with creating loving sustainable relationships with our neighbors and building genuine connections with each other."
For more information on the events Neighbor to Neighbor is hosting in August, October and November, click here.