Welcome to the DRI Blog!

​Welcome everyone, to the DRI Blog! We are a few local Davie County volunteers who have been super eager to support this amazing initiative and are inviting y’all along for the ride. Please share your own observations of Respect in your everyday life, as well as thoughts you’ve had about what RESPECT is. This will be fun and inspiring, we believe, for all who visit the website... maybe making more people want to  be respectful to set that example for others. Thanks for being part of making Davie County an awesome place to live! Can’t wait to hear your stories and thoughts. You can even submit an article ~ that would be welcomed.

Some musings from one of DRI friends:
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the second annual Davie Respect Initiative Challenge (DRI) and wondered ‘just how respect could be witnessed in Davie County’? So decided it would be fun to be on the lookout to see what could be observed. These might be little ways that people showed respect in everyday life. Maybe folks do it without even realizing they are, or maybe it’s a conscious act – but could I spot  respect in action?

​The first example blew me away. A substitute postman had delivered a package to our neighbors and found their keys in the front door. He knocked on the door, thinking they might be home, but there was no answer. So, he came to our house and asked if I knew how to contact them, explaining what had happened. First, I sent my neighbors a text, then went next door, removed the keys and locked them in their house. I thought, how beautiful and caring this young man was, showing respect for someone he didn’t even know. When I thanked him for his extra effort – he just simply replied, ‘it was the right thing to do, and I’d want someone to do that for me. Glad I could help.’

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​Next stop – Lowe’s Home Improvements. While shopping for hardware to help redecorate, observed a woman with a couple things in her arms, drop her keys. As I started toward her, a little girl – maybe 4 or 5 – pulled away from her mother and swiftly picked up the keys and handed them to the woman with a big smile and a ‘here ya go.’ Early signs of respectfulness? I left with my items and a smile for the rest of the day.
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At Walmart that same afternoon an older man in one of the riding carts was attempting to get out to reach something and an athletic young man came by and asked if he could do it for him – the man was clearly relieved to not have to get up out of the riding cart, and thanked him. ‘Sure, any time,’ was the soft response the young man gave, along with a big smile. This same young man was spied helping another - a short woman - reach something on the top shelf a few aisles over. That’s what I’d called a ‘two-fer.’ Walmart in Mocksville is a great place to see, and practice, respect in action.

On the home front, my neighbor age 9, came by when it was raining and unbeknownst to my husband and me, rolled our recycling out to the curb. We later learned it was his idea ‘to do something kind when no one saw him.’ He had heard about Random Acts of Kindness at school and had figured out on his own how to accomplish this.

​Do we see little ways we can pass that on? When we think of someone we know, and then imagine a kindness we could do for them, do we follow through? Could we do that the next time we think of someone? Let’s experiment…, making Davie County an even better place to live! 😊

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