I have to admit that I’m the one who gets teary-eyed when those sappy commercials come on TV, usually around Christmas, where a son comes home from college first thing in the morning and surprises his mother or a grandmother gets a phone call from a grandchild.

I got a little sappy this weekend when I was watching people — most of them strangers — working side-by-side for a common cause. What a tremendous sense of community.

It wasn’t just Marion people helping to build a home for Ryan and Carrie Newell.

Compassion and caring extended past our city limit boundaries. This weekend it overflowed into Hillsboro, Goessel, Peabody, and beyond.

Ryan and Carrie will get a home out of the deal but more than that, they know this community of compassionate people supports them.

Boy. Wouldn’t that be nice to package and pass around?

Just think of the other successes we could achieve if we all worked together.

Too many times we get hung up on what one particular town or what a group of people want or think they have to have their way.

We forget the real purpose of living in our communities — to help each other, to lend support, and most of all, to be there in the hour of need.

Way to go, Marion, and all of our friends and neighbors beyond our borders.

— susan berg