There is no place on earth I would rather have raised my children than in our South Shore hamlet on Long Island. Not only does our community provide a foundation for achieving greatness, but our children are provided opportunities to make our community great.

Our children are our most precious treasure. As president of the North and Central Merrick Civic Association, I’ve come to know some of Merrick’s children through our community service program. I want to thank the parents for giving me the opportunity to get to know your children.

For more than a year, Merrick’s children have been coming into Leg. Dave Denenberg’s office for a couple of hours on Wednesday and Thursday nights to help our civic and legislator make our world a better place. We now have more than 50 children, ages 12 and up participating in our program. The children need to fulfill a religious or scholastic requirement, but often continue to volunteer long after their service credit has been met. The satisfaction these children get from giving back to their community will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Parents tell me how their children ask them if they could come into the office to wrap gifts for the children of our deployed soldiers. Others are entering data, learning computer skills that will help them in college and their careers. The children understand that even stuffing envelopes or putting together packages for a meeting is an important job. They get a chance to help others and they take their responsibilities very seriously. And those who are signing people in at one of our monthly meetings learn about the real life issues that face a community and learn that change does not happen on its own. Through their volunteerism, our children are gaining a sense of pride in being a contributing member of society and learning how a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can enact change.

Sometimes, it seems that our children are growing up in a cold, cruel world and protecting their innocence seems to be an ever-increasing challenge. We, as parents, want to make the world a kinder place for our children. However, in shielding our children from the harsh realities of our world, I sometimes wonder if we are giving our children the tools that they really need to survive. Sometimes we must step back a little and allow our children to see the world for themselves. Our children need the opportunity to give back to the community that raised them to fully understand their place in our society.   

And sometimes we have to just sit back and look at the world through their eyes. 

I am humbled by the hearts of our children and how hard they work to make the world a kinder place. Through the eyes of our children, we see genuine kindness and compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves.  Through the eyes of our children, we learn the importance of protecting and preserving our environment.  They seem to get it. The children who clean up our woodlands see for themselves the effect that littering has on an otherwise pristine environment. The values that these children walk away with will stay with them forever.

Sometimes, when it seems like our world is falling apart, we need to count our blessings and look at the world through the innocent eyes and gentle hearts of our children. We may catch a glimpse of something that some of us may have lost a long time ago – the ability to Dream. To dream – not only for a better tomorrow – but truly believe in our own ability to make the dream come true.

(Editor's note: Claudia Borecky is an unpaid, opinion columnist for Patch. If you have something to say, please e-mail Emily.Cappiello@patch.com)