Who, what, how ...

Before I ended up falling headfirst into the newspaper side of writing, I thought I pretty much knew what went on around our community. For the most part, I was fairly well informed. I probably missed some events, but I was busy raising kids and getting them ready for life in the best way their dad and I knew how. 
In the nearly eight years I’ve been down inside the news rabbit hole in a Wonderland I never knew existed, I’ve seen many more things going on in our local community. “Going on” – in terms of things to do that are run by different clubs and organizations, and run by our city itself 
I sometimes remind myself about what life was like before I knew how things operated – as in, who does what, when and where. I’ve always been enjoyed seeing things behind-the-scenes, how events are planned and how things unfold. In college, I was part of the Concert Committee. We were the ones who helped bands come onto campus. We volunteered with setup, ticket taking, advertising and more. If you’re not involved in the behind-the-scenes stuff, you simply show up with your ticket and enjoy. For me, part of the fun was seeing how it all happened and how people made it work. But I digress. 
To the local community at large, it doesn’t matter, really, WHO does an event. That event could be a festival, a road race, a bazaar, a concert, a kids’ day in the park, a benefit dinner—you name it. 
Back then, when I was busy getting kids raised, I honestly didn’t care WHO ran an event. It didn’t matter a bit to me. We were just happy to have something to do.
Now, I really don’t care, either, WHO runs an event. If we’re doing something for the benefit of the community, who does it really shouldn’t matter. 
Because there’s the WHAT. It should matter WHAT we have available in the community. We have a color run, summer fun run, and last summer there were special movie nights at the city park pool. 
Maybe you don’t see a WHAT happening in our community that you’d like to see. For example, I was REALLY hoping SOMEONE would be able to pull off a community crawfish boil last spring. That would have been a great WHAT to have, especially if it would help raise funds for a worthy cause. Unfortunately, that idea fizzled before it even got out of the gate. I’m still of the opinion that, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And, as I said before it shouldn’t matter WHO suggests it or WHO organizes it. 
Because in the end, what matters is HOW it’s done. Whatever we do, whatever organization runs an event, should do the absolute best they can to make it an enjoyable experience for all. HOW we do an event goes a long way to drawing people to come back, no matter WHO runs it. The first year or two (or three), there’s a learning curve. We learn what works, what didn’t work, what can be improved on. If we don’t think we can improve on HOW we do something, an event can become stagnant. I for one am looking forward to ALL the things we have coming up in our community.