“We create safety by numbers. The more of us there are, the safer we make everyone.” - Laura Doty

I met Laura Doty in 2017 after catastrophic fires leveled much of the county where we both live. We’d shown up to assist the survivors of the fire, people who were now living at the local fairgrounds, uncertain if their house would still be standing when the flames were finally extinguished. For far too many, the answer was no. Over the years we’ve become friends who share a passion for engagement, for showing up to do what we can, when we could, to make a difference. Laura, or Dr. Doty as she is known by many, has spent the better part of her life as a therapist and forensic psychologist.

Laura is also one of a group of local women who call themselves the Benton Street Improvement Association. Inspired by a yard sign project she saw in Washington DC when she attended the Climate March, Laura wanted to bring the idea back to her local community. The collection of yard signs created by the The Benton Street group is what Laura calls, “small potato activisim,” to create a community that is safe and welcoming for everyone.

This is a conversation between friends, about the importance of engaging in local activism in a time of great peril. About what it means to show up and bring our authentic selves to the conversation. About speaking the truth because mall potato activism is about planting seeds and watching them grow.

As you listen to this episode, consider:

• We create safety in numbers. What is one thing you can do to lend your voice to a cause that matters to you?
• Laura talks about the small things we can do, even in our neighborhood. Bringing soup to a sick neighbor. Stopping to talk to someone as you walk the dog. Look for ways to help build community, one person at a time.
• Summon up your courage to join a community clean up, pot luck or local gathering. Bring your authentic self. Watch what happens next.

Learn more about the Benton Street Improvement Association here.

Benton Street Improvement Association Facebook page.

Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light.

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.

To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago

Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author

“I get a call, … I’m waiting outside on the street corner. … A pickup truck shows up, with a fridge on it. Two guys get out and drop this fridge on the street. And that’s literally the way it started. These two anonymous guys, who drop this fridge on the street. … And there’s this guy named Ruben. And he’s the gatekeeper of the block —making sure everyone’s on good behavior and nobody messes up the block and he says to me, ‘What is this?’ And I say ‘Its a community fridge’. ‘A fridge for the community?’ Yeah, I say. And he says, ‘I got you Dan, you and me, we’re going to do this’…

It was during COVID, and Dan Zauderer was a 6th grade Humanities teacher at the American Dream School in the South Bronx, a charter school in New York. The American Dream School specifically served the undocumented Latin American community. And because Dan taught in Costa Rica for a while, his Spanish skills were good, and it allowed him to get to know his students really well.

Because he took the time to lean into the school community, he discovered that many of many of his students’ families did not have access to basic resources. He sent out a survey via text message to eighty eight families and what he learned changed the course of his life. One in four families were cutting down on meals or skipping meals a few times a week.

“The first project,’ he tells me, “Was raising money online. By tapping into the contacts he’d made throughout his life, he was able to raise in the tens of thousands of dollars. They raised money for hotspots, for books for summer reading and food supplies… "It was a great experience, to know that you could rally community that way.” They began to send staples to his student’s families —cleaning supplies, beans and rice. But some of the families struggled more than others.

They enrolled six families in a food delivery program, where they received weekly boxes of produce. Over time, the money ran out, but the food insecurity did not. It was in that experience that the seeds of Grassroots Grocery were sown.

Dan Zauderer is a community builder, social entrepreneur, and the driving force behind Grassroots Grocery. His journey began as a middle school teacher at the Bronx’s American Dream School, where he discovered that one in four of his students were facing food insecurity. That moment changed everything. Leaving his teaching job, he co-founded the Mott Haven Fridge Network, a grassroots initiative that grew into Grassroots Grocery, a volunteer-powered movement bringing fresh, healthy food directly to communities that need it most.

Learn more about Grassroots Grocery here.

Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light.

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.

To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago

Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author

“If we’re not in community with other people, it’s much easier to throw rocks at each other.” - John Crowley, Aqus Community Foundation.

Perhaps you’ve had the opportunity to travel to England or Ireland and experienced it first hand. You step inside a darkly lit room, hard wood paneling defines the space. You step up to the bar, littered with glasses, beer taps and warm bodies waiting to be served. The walls are filled with dozens of yellowing photographs, framed football kits and requisite Guinness signs. Around you, a couple dozen unfamiliar friendly faces, but. strangers, the saying goes, are just friends you haven’t met yet. The match is on, conversation reverberates in the air, and before you know it, people start singing.

“I worked in my father’s pub when I was a kid, “ says John Crowley, a native of Dublin, Ireland. “I really fell in love with it —with the community aspect of it, and I missed it when I got here.” When he emigrated to the United States, it was one of the things he longed for, but no matter where he looked, he couldn’t seem to find. Sure, there were great bars and restaurants —he was in the San Francisco Bay Area after all, but he couldn’t find the sense of community reminiscent of his formative years.

Twenty five years ago, Crowley read Bowling Alone, and it changed his life. The book was about the power of social connection, asking the question, Where is our social capital? Where are the networks in community that bind it together and make is stronger? Unable to find it in his new home, he went about trying to create it. He invited people to join him in conversation at a local restaurant. The topic? What was the last postcard you received?

That night, he waited to see what would happen. A couple of new acquaintances arrived. As they sat and chatted, a few others joined. And then a few more. A social quorum emerged., and as they sat and chatted, the threads of community began to emerge. The rest, as they say, is history.

From the seeds of those early conversations, to a lifetime of dedication to building social connection, John Crowley has dedicated his life to expanding social capital. Along with British American business partner Lesley McCullaugh, he is the the owner of Aqus Cafe and founder of Aqus Community Foundation, a nonprofit focused on building a community connection that provides a sense of belonging and encourages people to invest in where they live.

You can learn more about John Crowley and Aqus Community Foundation here.

Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Someone who is giving back to their community? Working to make our world a better place? Send an email to suzanne@suzannemaggio.com. Nominate them for a future episode of From Sparks to Light.

To learn more about Robert Maggio, the composer of "Where Love is Love," our theme music, please check out his website.

To learn more about Suzanne, visit her website.

To learn more about the inspiration for this podcast, please check out Suzanne's memoir, Estrellas - Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago

Follow Suzanne on Social Media

• Instagram @suzannemaggio_author
• Facebook @ Suzanne Maggio author
• Threads @suzannemaggio_author