The short of it is that we're pretty serious about three things:
1) A small town and its grocery store share a mutual fate.
2) If everyone was a neighbor like Fitch, the world would be a pretty great place.
3) We cannot afford not to pay a higher price for neighborliness. By shopping and helping at Fitch's as much as we can, we're bucking the market economy mentality of bargain over neighbor! See how you can help: http://tiny.cc/helpfitch
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Here's the long version of it:
The FIRST THING is that a small town and its grocery store share a mutual fate. The grocery store is critical to a town's infrastructure--it sustains a town communally and economically, and it also ensures that critical nutrition is within close proximity. The SECOND THING is that if everybody strived to be the kind of neighbor that Leonard Fitch is, the world would be a pretty great place.
[Over the last 10 years — “the Walmart Decade” — wherein big-box discount stores routed independent businesses, Fitch's IGA has not drawn a profit. As a matter of fact, Leonard and Emily Fitch have personally put up almost half a million dollars to keep the store open. What's more, over the past couple of years, not only have the Fitches have had to contend with Emily's stage-four melanoma, they've also dealt with the next-door Dollar General turning into a grocery store (before it moved in 10 years ago, the Nashville-based chain verbally assured local officials that wouldn't even sell groceries). All of this to say, the Fitches have paid (and are paying) a high price to pay to continue offering neighborliness-- a price that they've willingly paid. Fitch now admits he’s “a hair’s breadth” from closing. Jesus once told a story about a man who was attacked and fell injured on the wayside. Two men passed by the injured man-- actually, He said they went out of their way to avoid him. And Jesus called the third man a 'neighbor'. A neighbor is one who helps the person in need. For over 50 years, Fitch has been the third man for Wilmorians. Now it's our turn to be that for him.]
So it is that the THIRD THING we believe is that through a concerted community effort of sacrificing time, effort and money, we can be neighbors to Fitch. And maybe-- just maybe-- this collective effort at Fitch's will catalyze a neighborliness epidemic that transforms our schools, our neighborhoods and our Main Street. (Wouldn't it be just like God to write one of the last chapters of Leonard Fitch's life as one in which He turned an impending tragedy into a revitalization movement in the very town Fitch served and loved for over half a century? That'd be a fitting end to an amazing life.) Many of us in towns like Wilmore are beginning to realize that our economic practice of bargain over neighbor isn’t only incompatible with what we say we believe — it’s incompatible with the survival of our community. Now it's time to do something about it. This group's purpose is to invite and assist you in being a part of such a neighborly movement.
