Team Assignment

My original community was in Hartland, Wisconsin. This is a predominately caucasian population. Most of the families that I grew up around were extremely wealthy and came from happy families. Community members in this area were most likely to contribute to the community with their monetary donations rather than volunteering. My neighborhood alone was populated with Lawyers, Doctors, Pharmacists, Dentists and the ever famous “Businessman. ” Those were the fathers that no one really knew what their job entailed.

Every so often a more modern family would move into the neighborhood, in my case, that was my family. A single mother and a her only child. My mother was a grocery store manager, a difficult task in its self but nothing as important, to other people, as a Doctor. The mothers of the families with fathers who made the “bread” would often get together for afternoon walks around the town, and baking nights. Community events took place mostly in the summer as Wisconsin is bitter cold in the winter.

During the summer months community members would all gather on the streets downtown and sing and dance and drink. There would also be cookouts at the town grocery store in honor of different charities and school programs in the area. I would work the cook outs for my basketball team and track teams. It was a nice time and it allowed everyone to get together in the summer. Everyone in our community was nice, respected and respectful. When something would happen, such as an accident with high school students, it would effect the entire town.

We had upstanding members of our community like the Chief of Police, who was a father of a daughter in my grade. He created a memorial for all the students who were lost in high school. It still stands tall in our town square. After we lost young members of our community, firefighters, police officers, emergency medical transponders would volunteer their off time to give speeches to all ages about the dangers of being un-responsible behind the wheel. Men of the community stepped up and pushed for a curfew for anyone under the age of 18.

Tragedy made my community stronger and more resilient. As a community I think our town did everything it could to give its residents a beautiful, safe, welcoming town to call home. I am so proud to call Hartland, Wisconsin a part of my life. As a member of the community, I think that being a good student, working at the local stores, and watching community children makes me a good member of the community. As a member of that community in my heart still, I send my monetary donation bi-annually for park maintenance and keeping the community clean.