Since returning to this area last year, I’ve done some reflecting on what it means to be part of a community. I thought I had a pretty good idea of the concept as a whole, until this past weekend, when I had a chance to truly see what a community can accomplish when they come together. And I have to say that I’ve never been more proud to call this or any community my home.

At its heart, a community is defined by what brings people together. No matter how diverse the group, it’s how we are brought together by shared interests or a shared history, or even a common geographic location. As we look back through history, it is evident that few things can unite us all better than a common cause.

This weekend, in Oxford, that cause was supporting Todd Harvey and his family.

For those of you who don’t know Todd – and I didn’t before Friday night – he is a 23-year old Greene graduate in the midst of a knock-out, drag-out fight with an aggressive form of cancer. Scratch that. It’s not just a fight, or even a battle – what he’s really fighting is a war against these insidious cancer cells.