By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
A lot of good comes out of the little house at 113 Crim St. in Bowling Green.
The house is the headquarters of “The Common Good,” an organization honored at the Bowling Green City Council meeting Monday evening with an Honor Roll Award from the Human Relations Commission.
The award is intended to recognize individuals or groups that promote respect for diversity in the community, according to Rev. Mary Jane Saunders, co-chairperson of the commission. The Common Good, she said, has helped make Bowling Green a more welcoming and inclusive community.
“We have this gem in our town,” said Margaret Montague, of the human relations commission. “They do things that are really amazing.”
The Common Good’s local efforts include organizing neighborhood cleanups and coordinating community gardens.
The Common Good on Crim Street in Bowling Green
Those efforts attracted Bowling Green State University student Morgan Hollandsworth to get involved. Coming from Cincinnati, Hollandsworth said she initially struggled to find her place in Bowling Green.
“I wanted to make a difference in this new community I was a part of,” said Hollandsworth, who is a member of the BGSU President’s Leadership Academy and of the city’s human relations commission.
So she started volunteering with The Common Good. She helped with neighborhood cleanups and with community gardens. She found a purpose in the community – and got the perk of taking home some really good kale, she told council Monday evening.
The Common Good works to empower, educate, improve and unite the community, Hollandsworth said.
The organization also offers free dinners at its Crim Street location every Thursday, plus holds workshops, art exhibits, meditation programs and open mike nights, Montague said.
The group also focuses on issues beyond Bowling Green, offering cultural immersion trips to places like the Navajo Nation and South Bronx.
The Common Good’s roots are found with the United Christian Fellowship organization that started in Bowling Green in 1946. The organization shifted to an interfaith focus, “working toward the common good of all humanity,” Montague said.
In accepting the award Monday evening, Megan Sutherland of The Common Good said she was honored and grateful. Sutherland said the organization is dedicated to serving its “beloved Bowling Green community.”
Nominations for future Honor Roll Award recipients can be made on the city’s website.
