It’s a paradox: There are more people crowded out here than ever, but fewer people willing or able to raise their hand to volunteer to keep our community institutions going.
Think of the predicament of the fire and emergency medical services, the neighborhood associations, and the churches — the volunteers who run the bake sales, put out the fires, throw rescue boats into the surf, and deliver meals to the homebound are “aging out,” not just here but around the country.
As summer barrels toward August, we wonder if the barbecues might save us. Or, put another way, if public enthusiasm for chicken and rib barbecues might be the last rampart that stands to prevent the collapse of civic life as America once knew it.
Smoke will rise once again on Aug. 27 from an acre of charcoal-fired pullets at the Amagansett Fire Department’s crowd-pleasing annual chicken barbecue. Hallelujah!
And the volunteers and congregation members at the Calvary Baptist Church are rowing against the tide to revive that parish’s beloved chicken and ribs barbecue, too. It was last held before the Covid-19 pandemic, but the congregation is determined to bring it back. It’s their biggest fund-raiser of the year; the grapevine says something like 400 tickets were snapped up in early hours after the announcement was made that it was on, scheduled for Aug. 10.
Let the grills blaze again and let the barbecue save us.