One morning, a villager decided to walk along the river on her way to work. As she was enjoying the view she noticed a crying infant in the river. Horrified by the sight of a helpless child in such a dangerous predicament, the villager dove into the water, grabbed the baby, and brought him ashore. The baby, although afraid and soaking wet, was fine. With a sigh of relief, the villager wiped the water from her own eyes and looked out on the river.

“What if I hadn’t seen him,” she thought to herself.

As she tried to warm the baby with her jacket, she heard more crying. She looked out over the river only to see another baby in the water. Once again, she dove into the water and rescued this baby as well. Not a minute had passed before she heard more crying, and looking out over the river, she spotted dozens more babies.

Calling out for help she was soon joined by the entire community and together they rescued as many babies as they could. But the babies kept on coming . . . .

After half-an-hour or so, a group of villagers decided to go upstream to find out why the babies were in the river in the first place. Upstream, they found an ogre – tossing babies into the water!

Only by dealing with this ogre will the villagers be able to keep the babies safe.

Pulling the babies out of the river is essential. How can we live with ourselves if we don’t try?

When the villager called her neighbors to the river, she mobilized community. But going upstream and confronting the ogre is creating a lasting change in the condition that causes the problem. Creating lasting change is what United Way of Olmsted County endeavors to do. We focus on "keeping the babies out of the river" in the first place. If we don’t, we will be pulling babies out of the river forever.