The Importance of Pulling Together

As we all know, the last month has brought devastation to various parts of our country. Hurricanes in Texas and Florida. Wildfires in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington state. Heat waves in New York and New Jersey. These natural events have had a huge impact on individuals, communities, and businesses.

We operate stores in all of these states. Some of our team members have been directly affected by these events. We are thankful that no one (or their family) have been injured or have lost their homes. When you know and work with people in the affected areas it makes the problems real – it becomes a greater catastrophe than what you might read in the paper.

As they say, there is always a silver lining behind the clouds (in some of these cases, quite literally). It has been heartening to see how communities are pulling together to help their friends and neighbors. At a time when there is a great amount of political, racial, and economic division it is good to see that we can still reach out to help each other when the chips are down.

Please keep the people in the affected areas in mind. The scars and destruction will last long after the events fall from the news cycle. Coping with change and moving forward with life is a daily slog. At CMSI, we are blessed with a great team who care about each other and their communities. Our job, as we like to say, is to “make life better”. We try to do it one person at a time. One day at a time.