Why We Exist

For over thirty years I've built decks for a living in the gold country of Northern California. I'm good at what I do. I show up on time. I take care of my customers. And for thirty years, the question I've been asked more than any other, by neighbors, by strangers, by anyone who needed something done, has always been the same.

It's the most asked question in every community, large or small. And for thirty years I answered it one conversation at a time, because I knew my community and I knew its people.

Before the internet, I published my own weekly classified newspaper. People held it in their hands. It was full of their neighbors: who was selling, who was hiring, who could fix what. It belonged to the community. Then the internet came along and took us everywhere in the world, except home. The phone book disappeared. The bulletin board at the market got crowded out by a screen. Somewhere along the way we stopped knowing who does what, right down the street.

That's been my greatest desire for years, and it's why WeLoveCommunity.com exists.

I learned it the hard way, too. I do great work, but my mailing address was in Jamestown. So when someone in Arnold, or Murphys, or Angels Camp went looking for a deck builder, I didn't show up. Not because I wasn't good. Not because I wasn't available. Simply because the internet didn't know I served those communities. I was invisible to the very people who needed me most.

Then came November 2018. The Camp Fire wiped out Paradise, California, and almost overnight a whole community was scattered across the country. I was helping run the Camp Fire Survivors Facebook page, and everyone kept asking the same thing: where did everybody go?

So I made a simple Google map. Every time a survivor told us where they'd landed, I dropped a red heart on that community. Within weeks there were hearts in more than 270 communities across about 30 states, from Oregon to Hawaii, Alaska and Florida. Newspapers, TV and radio stations shared it across the country.

Paradise taught me that. The place was gone, but those hearts kept the people connected. WeLoveCommunity.com is that same heart, pointed the other way: helping you love the community you're in, every single day.

So here's how it works. Every community in America gets its own page. Every local business gets a listing: name, home community and phone number, right there on one line. One tap and you're calling them. I can get you to a phone number faster than a Google search can. No outside ads. No tracking. The only sponsors you'll ever see are your own neighbors' businesses.

And here's the part I care about most. Within a community, no local business is your competition. When I have more deck work than I can handle, I hand it to other local builders. If any local business gets the work, everybody wins, because the money stays home.

That's the Community Circle. Businesses, churches, nonprofits and organizations, the local heroes, all lifting each other up:

Every church, every food pantry, every club and every nonprofit can make a free Printable-Flyer for their next event and post it right on their community's page. Pancake breakfasts. Craft fairs. A group dog walk on Friday night. That's what community looks like, and it deserves to be found too.

I'm building it here first, in my own backyard, right on Main Street. If I can do it here, it can be done there, in every community across America.

So welcome home.

• Looking for someone who does good work? Find your community and give them a call.
• Have an event coming up? Make your free Printable-Flyer and invite your whole community.
• Own a local business? You're probably already listed. Go find yourself.