FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — Renée Verbanic often thinks about water and the power it carries.
Just as the drop that splashes atop a rock may not make an impact the first time, but given years of drops, water will leave a visible impression on the rock. She often quotes a song about water.
“Can we be like drops of water falling on the stone,” Verbanic said. “The water is seemingly weak, but given time, the rock will wear away and that’s what Communities of Shalom is all about.”
Verbanic, in her role as director of Marion County Communities of Shalom Inc., said her hope is that the two-day Building Bridges of Respect conference that wrapped up last Sunday at LIFE United Methodist Church will act like water and ripple through the community. She said nonprofits networked together to discuss such issues as addiction, the LGBTQ community, different religions and races.
She often relies on the power of word of mouth, and neighbor talking to neighbor to spread the word about what Communities of Shalom does.
The event was not about raising money because it was underwritten by grants the organization obtained through its role as a branch of West Virginia Prevention Solutions where it receives federal funding to promote alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention.
Verbanic said vendors asked prior to signing up if they would be charged a fee for attending. Again, she turned to the metaphor about water and instead told them to bring bottled water.
“Again, it’s that symbol of that ripple effect out in the community and we know, slow and steady, the rock will wear away. And the rock, of course, being intolerance, being hate-filled comments, this idea that we have all the answers — that’s the rock and being open to other ideas, to other concepts, other ways of life.”
Ryan Glaspell, of Fairmont, said he did not attend last Saturday’s events for the Building Bridges of Respect conference because of a prior engagement but was drawn to the Sunday portion after reading about the conference’s goals and mission on social media.
“I think there are so many different local things to choose from but just having an event that explicitly was about bringing people together and quite literally building bridges with other people was something that made me really want to bring my four-year-old to come and just have some of those values seen firsthand through different events and activities,” Glaspell said.
On Sunday, Verbanic taught conference guests how to make their own Shalom Flag, which were patterned after Tibetan Prayer Flags. The flags symbolize healthy community-building and show others that its owner stands up for inclusivity, representation and diversity.
“Shalom Flags are used to promote peace and compassion and health and strength and wisdom,” said Verbanic, who made one as an example in support of her mother’s upcoming 90th birthday.
Fairmont residents Cherish Davis, and her thirteen-year-old son Ezra Davis, made a Shalom Flag that called for prayers for children, unity, pastors, faith, love and understanding. Cherish said she believed everyone should attend.
“It is amazing. It’s good for children — everyone should have came out and supported it. Everyone needs to come together so it’s a great time for it,” Cherish Davis said. “It’s good to support every culture. Everyone comes from a different background and everyone needs to understand how it is for everyone.”
Verbanic said Communities of Shalom hasn’t measured success in terms of numbers of attendees in its 20 years as an organization. She strives for quality over quantity.
“What we heard from the two dozen or more organizations that we had — and they were all nonprofit, helping organizations that were there (Saturday) — almost every one of them stopped by and said, ‘This has been terrific. The networking has been so helpful’,” Verbanic said.
She said COVID-19 pandemic guidelines made it difficult to host resource fairs last year, so many guests mentioned how grateful they were to have been invited to the events at the Wave-Tek Pool on Saturday.
She said while the conference organizers are still counting guests, she knows that 150 kids and adults attended Saturday.
“What we look for is — were connections being made, did we have the diversity that we were looking for, did we have young and old? Yes, we did. The oldest one there was probably 95 and the youngest was a babe in arms.
“Did we have gay and straight? You betcha. Did we have all faiths? For Marion County, we did. We had Jewish, we had Islamic, we had Buddhists, we had Atheists, we had Christians, so we look for the diversity, the representation. That was our goal, inclusivity, representation, diversity.”
In its role as the resource provider for drug and alcohol prevention education, Communities of Shalom is tasked with connecting human service agencies to each other and the community.
“We had, I think, two people say, ‘We’d like to make a donation to the Communities of Shalom. Where do we do that?’ and I pointed out our treasurer. No, this was not a fundraiser,” Verbanic said.
The event’s organizers have hoped from the beginning that the conference would help broaden guests’ horizons and to have conversations with others they’ve never had before.
“To add more tools to their toolbox regarding conflict resolution, regarding understanding the different gender identities and understanding the different religions and understanding what different organizations have to offer regarding wellness and regarding stigma reduction and understanding what it takes for a person living with addiction what it takes to recover and what their recovering process looks like,” Verbanic said.
Jim Nolan, a board member of both the Fairmont Human Rights Commission and Communities of Shalom, said he received a lot of positive feedback during both days’ events. The HRC also helped sponsor the conference.
“A lot of people tell me they’re so happy that we had this event. They feel like they’re included. They feel like there’s a group of people that are open to other ways of thinking, so it’s been good from that perspective,” Nolan said.
Nolan said there were a number of groups there representing the LGBTQ community and other groups that are often underrepresented, such as PFLAG and Fairness West Virginia.
“There’s lot of different types of groups in Fairmont, lots of different types of lifestyles and races, and ethnicities, so this is a celebration of all groups of people, so when people come they feel, ‘Oh, this is a good thing’,” Nolan said. “It’s been a really good experience for all of us.”
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