In the south, we have a strong sense of community. We love to be surrounded by the people we know and have been associated with. Whether you live, work, worship or just shop in a certain town, we often feel like that community is a part of who we are.

I believe that the backbone of every strong community is community events.

We are blessed to live in an area with plenty of community events to choose from. Almost every week we have more events to put into our “community calendar” than we can fit into the paper. There are car washes for local teens, bake sales, festivals and games popping up all over our coverage area and it keeps the people happy.

When there is nothing to do in a town, that’s when it starts to go downhill. The north Jefferson area is a hub of action during the spring and summer months and it’s quite obvious by everything that is constantly on the agendas of its citizens.

Take this past weekend for instance. On Saturday there was a wild game feast at Mt. Olive First Baptist Church. This was a free event with enough food to feed a small army. Citizens could take their pick of boar sausage, shrimp gumbo, frog legs, chicken fingers and deer cooked every way possible. After the meal, everyone was welcomed into the church sanctuary where John Croyle with the Big Oak Ranch proceeded to teach about the importance of men teaching their sons to be real men and teaching their daughters how to pick a real man.

After his inspiring words, they started a giveaway that included more than 400 prizes for participants. This event is just one example of a free, family-focused, local event that powers the backbone of our community.

Another free event that was held this weekend in north Jefferson was the meet-and-greet with the new head football coach for the UAB Blazers, Garrick McGee. This was held at the Gardendale Civic Center and was the perfect opportunity to support not only our community, but the neighboring community of Birmingham also. There was also a nice spread of food and give aways at this function and the people with the UAB athletics can’t be beat. They are an extremely nice crowd to talk with and to get to know.

There are plenty of options out there to get involved in your community if you want to take that step. Don’t sit at home bored on Friday and Saturday night — look in the paper and find out what’s happening around your area and then get up off the couch and attend the event. Don’t get caught up the in the hum-drum boredom that comes in life when you don’t try new things. Go beyond your ordinary television watching nightly routine and spice it up with the dinner theater in Gardendale, or hit a couple of the youth baseball games that are starting. And we all know that in our county, you can find a local church with a special singing or speaker just about any night of the week.

The bottom line is that we live around some pretty amazing people in this area, and we would really be missing out if we didn’t branch out and meet the ones we have been blessed to live beside.