Jacob Hall: Reflections on Community

You may have noticed that my blog posts came to a complete stop last week. I’m sorry, but I’m not sorry. For those of you who don’t know I live in South Carolina. A little over a week ago a school shooting was the not only upset our community. I think it is safe to say that the death of six year old, Jacob Hall, has moved the world.

Reflections on Jacob Hall’s death

On Wednesday September 28th Jacob Hall was one of three victims of a school shooting at Townville Elementary in South Carolina. Jacob died on Saturday. I was made aware of Jacob’s death by a friend because the parents had made it public that his funeral would be superhero themed, and my friend thought our group of heroes that does charity work in the community, SC Upstate Heroes, could get involved.

Several people in our group were able to go to the visitation and the funeral. I was able to join the rest of the group on Thursday to welcome the children back to school alongside the Townville Fire department, Police department, and therapy dogs. Never has there been a more noble cause to put on my super suit, and I’m proud to have debuted and dedicated my new Supergirl costume for Jacob.

Townville Strong

The community of Townville, and the rest of the world has been so moving over the past week and a half. I don’t really pay attention to the news very much, but this was too close to home to ignore. Never have I felt so moved by the sense of community that was formed through the death of this little boy.

The parents encouraged everyone to dress as superheroes the day of the funeral to show their support. They also didn’t want to make it a mortifying experience for the children. I know that across the country people dressed up to show their support. Across the state of South Carolina it was nearly impossible to find a store that sold superhero attire that wasn’t out of stock. I was so impressed, proud, and grateful for the community’s response to support this family and school in the healing process.

After a lot of thought I have decided that the world needs to act like this all the time. Think about how much better the world would be if we treated our neighbors with this kind of love and support everyday, and not just in response to tragedy. This is my challenge for whoever this post reaches. We may not be able to stop bad things from happening, but we can do our best to create environments where it is hard for hate to survive. Be a good neighbor, and spread love wherever you go.

How are you going to spread community? Were you moved by Jacob Hall’s story? Did you dress up to show your support? Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to subscribe via email or Bloglovin‘ to never miss a post !