It was raining this morning. I was thankful for that. Running up my last hill on the final stretch, I stopped. There it was. The sign I have been waiting for. "Everything Must Go." I have run past this store hundreds of times, but today was different.

Socks for Seniors is a national nonprofit community service project to help senior citizens keep their feet warm this winter. Kitty told me that she didn't want money, instead she asked that I donate socks.

Together, people we serve and others in the community engaged in club activities or volunteered on community projects such as community gardens, the restoration of a playground, and a one-act play festival, which were sometimes funded by Alternatives' Community Bridging Grants.

The nation's drug epidemic, specifically the abuse of heroin and opiates, has earned center stage in politics and pop culture alike. The fact that we're talking about the devastating disease of addiction is welcome progress; those of us in the treatment field have been promoting awareness and de-stigmatization for years.

The national conversation on poverty and income inequality is welcome and long overdue. But there's something missing in many of the potential solutions on the table.

The "I Am Your Protector" campaign was organized by people of various religious, racial, ethnic, and belief backgrounds who yearned to create a community of people who speak up and stand up for each other across all sides of the conflicts.