Favorite things about the Silver Valley: A sense of community
Events like the Shoshone Medical Center's Kid's Health Fair is just one example of how the Silver Valley Community takes care of its people. The health fair offers families resources to combat health and hunger concerns as well as provides free coats to kids as they head back to school.
JOSH McDONALD
Sometimes our favorite things aren’t things at all. They might be intangible concepts like ideas or feelings.
In the Silver Valley, the most prevalent intangible is its sense of community.
Unlike larger communities, where people oftentimes don’t even know their neighbors' names, the Silver Valley is a place where neighbors and neighborhoods are communities within communities.
It’s here, in these communities, where the spirit of the Silver Valley really shines through.
Kimberly Thomas, a Silver Valley resident, said she loves being a part of a community that supports one another and has supported her when her family has needed help.
“When it comes down to it, we buckle up and help one another,” Thomas said, “whether it be a food drive/food bank helping people get food for Thanksgiving to feed their families or one of the many free events we have that go on every year. I have partaken in a few that have helped my family more than I’d like to admit.”
Thomas is right.
Over the years, groups like Silver Valley CARES, Shoshone Medical Center and the many food banks throughout the Silver Valley have taken on the area’s hunger and poverty crisis by offering food, clothing, health and mental health treatments and many other resources to the people of the Silver Valley free of charge.
But it’s not just the groups doing the work, it’s people helping people.
Lisa Reed is a Silver Valley native who has watched the area ebb and flow through years of prosperity and years of need, but it’s during the times of need that she believes the community shines.
“This community is so beautiful for helping a fellow community member in need,” Reed said.
The Silver Valley may not be perfect, but few things ever are. When tragedy strikes, whether it be something the magnitude of Sunshine Mine Disaster of 1972, or something as intimate as a neighbor being diagnosed with cancer, the Silver Valley knows how to rally, forsaking all differences if it means making life easier on a fellow resident.
This mentality is not only passed down through generations of Silver Valley families, but it's also contagious to newcomers.
“I love that this community really supports one another, especially in the face of tragedy,” said Amber Argow. “Sure, there might be some bad apples here and there, every community has them, but the majority here will walk through fire and back just to be there for their fellow man. I have been very privileged to live out here for the last seven years now and have never known or seen its equal.”
Tales of neighbors helping neighbors and communities rising up in support of one another unify the Silver Valley and make it the special place that it is.
“I love stories that pull us together rather than pull us apart,” Tamara Lindroos said. “We all have more in common than we may think, despite our differences.”