This week, a group of Woodstock-area volunteers helped make Thanksgiving a brighter time of year for local families in need. Saturday was pick-up day for the annual Thanksgiving Project by the Woodstock Community Food Shelf.

Each effort to improve our local communities contributes to the overall goal: progress as a state, and a country. Every step forward offers inspiration to proceed to the next one.

This age is asking us to receive others into a place of compassion, in a way that points us toward innovative solutions. With that work before us, let's not start from a place of limitation. Instead, we can humbly join together and start from a clean slate of possibilities.