Motivation is easier to find in a room full of people doing what you want to do. Watching neighbors get up and move can be what finally gets you moving, too.
In this edition of Stories from the Circle, meet Charles. He spent his career walking, until lung surgery left him disabled and using oxygen. At his first Wider Circle event in Huntington, West Virginia, he found people facing the same challenges he was. He also saw them dance and exercise together, which inspired him to start moving again.
Today, Charles has lost 22 pounds and serves as a community ambassador. We hope his story reminds you that being around the right people can change what feels possible.
Charles B.
“An Amazing Unexpected Gift”: How Charles Found His Circle
After lung surgery left him with a disability, Charles found a community that got him moving again. Today he’s healthier and giving back to his neighbors.
Charles spent most of his career on his feet, but after lung surgery left him with a disability and reliant on oxygen, walking got harder and so did the drive to stay active. His cholesterol was rising, and he and his husband were struggling to find local resources and to eat healthier on a budget. They were managing his changing health needs without knowing where to turn.
Then Charles and his husband found Wider Circle and went to their first event together. “The people were welcoming, smiling, happy,” Charles said. “It was a friendly environment.” He met other Wider Circle members facing similar challenges, from tight budgets to groceries that were hard to come by, and what struck him was how much they gave anyway. “People’s generosity impressed me,” he said.
Charles soon became a regular, making “tons of friends” and joining events in his community and from home when he couldn’t get out. For Charles, the events “became more than a meeting”, they became a support system. Hearing other people describe the same struggles made his own easier to carry. “Anytime we share a story with a group, we are supporting each other,” Charles said. “It’s a wonderful community.”
The conversations there shaped decisions about his care. A discussion about vaccines reminded him to get his pneumonia vaccine, which matters for his lungs, and another taught him about prostate cancer and the value of getting checked.
His community and the events helped get him moving. “I got up and started walking more,” Charles said. “I got motivated.” He exercised at events and danced at them too. At home, he began eating differently, learning portion control and meal timing, getting organized around what he would put on his plate.
Today, Charles has lost 22 pounds, and his cholesterol has improved.
For Charles, the events were about more than showing up. They were about people supporting each other. “The whole idea was to bring the community together”, he said. His Wider Circle Community Engagement Specialist noticed how he listened, responded, and looked for what he had in common with whoever was speaking.
Today Charles is an active member of his community and an ambassador. He has delivered food to fellow members and handed out food to people experiencing homelessness in his community. Ask him why, and the answer is immediate: “I’m always a giver.”
For Charles, his community arrived when he needed it. “Wider Circle was a breath of fresh air that brought people together in a time of need.” The connections, the friends, the access to local resources, all of it was “an amazing unexpected gift from the heavens,” he said.
He keeps coming back for what he found at that first event: members “celebrating being alive, and meeting each other.”
Thank you, Charles, for sharing your journey and for showing us what it looks like to keep giving. And thank you to our sponsors for helping make stories like his possible every day.
Stories from the Circle Sign Up
About the author: Jamie Zale
Wider Circle
