Editor's Voice: It's All About Community

By Rochelle Karina
We’re introducing a new feature at The Voice. It’s an opportunity for us to be a little more personal and to focus even more closely on what’s important - our community. Each issue, this space will feature thoughts and experiences from within the community.
You see, I’m a transplant. I didn’t grow up in Severna Park. I didn’t even grow up in Maryland, or on the East Coast. Nope, I’m originally from California, so I’m totally new to the idea that “community” means more than knowing what car my neighbor drives, or that impersonal nod and wave while waiting in line at the local Starbucks.
Ever since I started writing for The Voice, a little over a year ago, the one thing that stood out to me was the incredible sense of community, the local flare, the way folks around here believe in and support locally owned business, school teams and local organizations. Time and again, story after story, I got a sense of what this community is about, of how much people here care about their neighbors and the sense of community.
This isn’t a corporate world here - it’s a uniquely personal world - and I’m reminded of that every single day at the office with all the phone calls and emails that come in with stories about local kids, local charities and local businesses doing wonderful things to build up the community.
This month has been an ongoing exercise in the demonstration of that sense of community for me. From the local businesses that helped with prizes for the Greatest Love Story contest, to the residents who submitted stories that tugged everyone’s heart strings, I saw a community sharing and celebrating love.
As I watched the frenzy for tickets to the annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival, I quickly realized why a high school production could generate so much enthusiasm. All the other school events told the same story, I saw a community that believed in supporting their youth, the leaders of tomorrow.
This month’s big story was the Polar Bear Plunge, and by now it should be no surprise to me that residents of central Anne Arundel County make up a large portion of the Plungers each year. I saw a community with compassion and dedication.
I wish we had unlimited space in the paper, because each month I see stories that touch my heart and stories that make me smile. I see a community that reminds me what a small world we live in, and how wonderful it is to be part of it.