Bad news in 2020 is easy to find.
Being the year of the pandemic, every story seems to go back to COVID-19.
Businesses shuttered, businesses reopen. Schools closed, schools open. Not enough testing, too much testing.
Even a shortage of toilet paper.
The easy thing to do would be to only report numbers, only report hospital waiting times and how many tickets are being handed out for social-distancing violations. Those are important to know and they are very easy to find.
But what the community needs at a time like this is some good news. People need to balance their days with the needed facts, which can be hard to hear, and some hope that there are good people out there doing good things.
When COVID-19 hit our community, there was panic and fear, for sure. But from the comfort/confines of home, there were helpers.
When this whole thing is over, I will remember how our community found ways to come together and how we were able to report the "good stuff."
When Barrie Families Unite (BFU) began on March 14, it may have been thought of as just another Facebook chat group. Maybe you read about it and were just waiting for it to turn into a group for people to complain about neighbours and politics. That group is now well over 10,000 people strong and has connected countless people with items and services they desperately needed.
When Glowing Hearts announced they would have to fold, BFU stepped in and has taken over operations to make sure those familiar with the charity continue to receive the food and clothes they need.
The bad news about a pandemic that forces social distancing is that the entire live entertainment industry took a hit immediately and will likely be the last to reopen. For some, a world without music, theatre or dance is unbearable and there is a deep mental-health aspect.
Enter another Facebook group, another feelgood story about people helping.
Barrie’s Live Music Show began as a place for anyone who wanted to perform live. It became a creative outlet for all genres of music and also has more than 10,000 members. Not only have their live performances been widely viewed, the group has also raised more than $75,000 for more than 20 charities and organizations. That doesn’t include merchandise sales, where 100 per cent of the proceeds also go to charity.
It can be a daunting task to try to change the world and to worry about a global crisis. But what we can do is change our “local world” and how we perceive it.
Most people do things out of the goodness of their heart without looking for credit. But when local news is aware and able to report about it, there's the chance that someone’s little act of kindness can have a ripple effect that creates the change we seek.
There is good news in 2020, and I enjoy helping our community find it.
Shawn Gibson is a general assignment reporter with BarrieToday. Like Mr. Rogers once said: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping'."
