Last weekend, the residents of Beaufort County were out and about. They were walking to raise money for the research and a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. They were running to raise money for the restoration of a historic building in North Carolina’s oldest town. They were scrubbing the tarnish off of one of Washington’s landmarks, the Turnage Theater.

In short, they were participating. Participation takes effort, even if that effort is relegated to the process of showing up, maybe spending a few dollars. But that effort pays off in making our community a better place in many different ways.

There’s the saying: the more, the merrier. Every event is made better by more bodies, more interaction, more contact with the people of the community, seeing old friends and, perhaps, making new ones.

And those few dollars spent—on a raffle ticket, on some bake sale goodies, on sponsoring a walker or a runner—all add up to a total dollar amount that does real good in the community.

Take Smoke on the Water, for instance. This coming weekend, the annual barbecue and chili cook off will be held on the Washington waterfront. For your dollars, you can walk away with containers of chili and barbecue. This is the real deal — homemade and scrumptious. You walk away with the goods, but your buck doesn’t stop there: it’s used to fund our food pantry, scholarships, and various other endeavors in the area.

So anytime you show up to an event, every time you participate, you are doing good for the community and helping to make our place, a better place.