By KATHLEEN BARRY JOHNSON
For The Beachcomber

A couple on a date is stabbed and the man is killed by a mentally ill homeless person outside of a Sounders game.

Another mentally ill person — also with ties to the Northwest — walks into the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. and takes more than a dozen lives.

These things are on my mind as I drive toward the Penny Farcy Building to drop in on an “In-Person Assister Training” on Friday.

How do we respond? How do we prevent these types of things?

Suddenly, I’m faced with a much more mundane challenge — there’s no place to park. It’s a sunny Friday afternoon, and the Penny Farcy Building conference room is jam-packed with people learning about the intricacies of our state’s new health insurance exchange.

This is Vashon, and these 30-some people — predominantly volunteers — are giving up an entire day to listen to trainers from Public Health – Seattle & King County so that they can master the bureaucratic details of a new and confusing government system. And yes, there will be a test.

I come at break time. I’m here to meet the trainers, thank them for coming to the island and thank the Vashon Youth & Family Services (VYFS) staff and volunteers who are attending. I do not expect to hear the level of excitement and enjoyment radiating out of every corner as people consider what they are learning. Shouldn’t they be bored? Shouldn’t they be overwhelmed?

Nope. These people are jazzed. They are here to help their community. These men and women are giving up a day to make sure that on Oct. 1, and every day going forward, there are friends and neighbors living on this rock who can help other friends and neighbors access the support they need.

Things are going to change; things might be confusing and even frustrating, but in this room on this sunny Friday, there are regular people coming forward with energy and enthusiasm to help all of us navigate our future.

I do my thing: First stop is to thank Hilary Emmer, who is the heart and lungs behind the effort. (Don’t say that to her; she will downplay her role.) Then I’m on to thank the VYFS staff and volunteers and greet the trainers. There’s paperwork to discuss, of course, and all that will be worked out.

Then I’m on my way back to the office, thinking how amazing this community is. I’ve been lucky to be here for nine months now, and I am continually humbled by the depth of community here, by the way islanders reach out to each other and truly desire to make the way easier for those of us who are struggling.

There are very difficult problems in the world, and we are not immune. Our neighbors struggle with the same kinds of issues that, when left unaddressed, can lead to the tragic consequences we’ve witnessed (again) this past week. But our neighbors also are working with tremendous energy and full hearts to address those issues, to see to it that people who need help get it. None of this answers the bigger questions, but it does give me hope that we can get to those answers together.

— Kathleen Barry Johnson is the executive director of VYFS.