As some of you may know, I graduated from the University of Iowa and am a huge Hawkeye fan. Each year, my husband Mike and I go back for our annual homecoming football game, and there is something that has really stayed with me from last fall’s game that goes way beyond a game of football. Right across from Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium sits the Stead Family Children’s Hospital. The hospital’s advantageous height and positioning gives the young patients in their care a direct view of the stadium, its field and its crowd. As you can imagine, kids do their best to get as close to the windows as they can when a game is on, allowing them a temporary break from the reality of being confined to a hospital room.

Well in the summer of last year, a young mom named Krista Young from small-town Anita, Iowa decided to turn the children spectating into the spectacle. Her idea was simple: at the end of the first quarter of each game, fans in Kinnick Stadium would turn and wave to the children looking on through the hospital windows above. She posted the idea on a fan website, and the idea slowly started to gain traction on social media. When the first home game of the 2017 football season kicked off, she wasn’t sure if her idea had enough traction, but what happened next astonished her.

As the first quarter came to a close, fans all around Krista turned towards the hospital and began to wave to the kids. Before long, the entire stadium was standing and waving. That day “The Wave” was born, and it’s showing no signs of ever stopping.

I was fortunate to take part in The Wave last year and I look forward to doing it again and again. There’s something so powerful about what it represents. For a brief moment in those children’s lives, they can see that their community cares about them. It is a collective acknowledgement that they are all there for them.

As you wave, you don’t know the kids or their stories, yet you know you’ve made a difference in their lives. Ever since I waved at those children, I began to think about how many “Waves” our own community has. In many ways, our generous community has shown over and over again how much we care about all our neighbors and our most vulnerable citizens.

Season of Sharing, which for the fifth year in a row has collected more than $2 million to support individuals living on the verge of homeless, has proven itself as our community’s collective “hug” to those who need it. It is a reminder for vulnerable families that they are not alone—they can stay hopeful, rather than hopeless.

The Giving Challenge, which has raised more than $28 million since its inception in 2012, has also proven that each and every one of us has the potential to impact another person, a cause, a community. With more than 63,000 gifts made during the 2016 Challenge, it goes to show that our community is one that collectively rises at the opportunity to support our local nonprofits and the clients they serve or causes they address.

Because of the collective generosity of people like you, what we get to achieve every day at the Community Foundation is a constant reminder that there is good in the world. As long as we reside in this community we are not alone. Our community’s generosity does not just address issues, it connects us all.

Roxie Jerde is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.