We’re not fancy, but we’re family

Sometimes the Mat-Su Valley takes some knocks for what other people think we are. But there is more to us than outsiders know.

It’s true, we’re small-town folks. We don’t dress fancy. We don’t talk fancy. So sometimes we’re dismissed as “Valley trash” or “Wasillabillies.” (It’s even part of the Urban Dictionary, urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wasillabilly.)

But if you dig a little deeper — beyond our love of God, guns, snowmachines/ATVs and hunting — there’s a lot more.

Take Saturday’s Valley Thanksgiving Blessing, for instance.

This is the first year local churches have worked together with the Food Bank of Alaska to provide food to local families with less on a grand scale. Organizers at the Wasilla distribution location at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church said they expected to share food with 1,250 families this year.

Weeks before the event, organizers put out the call for volunteers. More than 200 Valley volunteers spent four hours Saturday sharing thousands of pounds of food with neighbors who might otherwise have gone hungry.

In fact, organizer Kay Peterson said they even had a few extra volunteers.

“It’s a nice problem to have,” she said.

Whether it’s neighbors who might go hungry unless we share, neighbors burned out of a home who need help rebuilding or neighbors who need help affording a double lung transplant, we take care of each other.

Say what you will about our old Carhartt coveralls and trucks with gun racks, we take care of our own.

As with the Valley Thanksgiving Blessing event Saturday, sometimes these do-gooding efforts are led by our neighbors in various church communities. We’re humbled by how much we can accomplish working together.

Perhaps the longest running and least well-known example began 37 years ago in 1973 when three Palmer churches began working together to host a Community Advent service. This year, five churches will sponsor the service at 7 p.m., Dec. 1 at St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer, 440 East Elmwood. It includes a meal, a combined choir and a worship service. The offering collected will benefit Family Promise Mat-Su.

Family Promise Mat-Su operates out of the First Presbyterian Church on Bogard Road in Wasilla. It coordinates efforts by area church communities to “provide compassionate care through shelter, meals and case management to families without housing.”

It’s true we’re not fancy, but we’re family.

And we’re at our best when we help each other.