Swimming out the window when you can’t reach the door

You can feel it when something has intrinsic value.

Whether it’s your grandfather’s toolbox, a vintage sewing machine, or a favorite pair of jeans.

We’ve even felt it about an entire community. We’ve looked into the eyes of those who survived the hurricane in New Orleans, tornado in Joplin and recently in New York and New Jersey after Sandy. We’ve helped with the rebuilding. And we don’t know what it was like to be there, to be them during the storm. But there’s a hope and strength that is true in the eyes of any survivor.

The storm surge from Superstorm Sandy pushed a wall of water 12-feet high a mile inland and changed every single thing—big and small—in its path. Everything.

In Gerritsen Beach, we met a man who swam out of his window during Sandy. At night. Pitch black. In October.

He isn’t a professional athlete. Just a man checking on his neighbors and their possessions. And still six months after Sandy he barely has a working kitchen.

As we spent an afternoon recording interviews for our radio show, and spoke with the editors from Every Day with Rachael Ray, Family Circle, Better Homes & Gardens, and Parents magazines at Kiddie Beach about rebuilding families, communities, and daily life, it was clear they could see the intrinsic value in the things around us and each of them glowed of inspiration, and from a physical day of work.

They worked to create a new commercial kitchen for the community to have weekly spaghetti dinners, a new fitness playground for the Volunteer Firefighters, a community garden, and renovating homes so they’re livable again. And their impact goes beyond the list of projects, it can reach inside the soul of a community and help people more than just the way a new stove helps make the spaghetti.

We’ve upcycled, renovated, and created so many things. But there’s nothing that we’ve touched that is as impactful and necessary as what we’ve seen after the storm. The eyes don’t lie.

And when the door isn’t an option, it’s time to find a way that works.