What does mutual aid look like beyond theory? On Tuesday, over 25 local organizations gathered in the Gund Commons Ballroom to answer that question through a panel and networking event aimed at building cooperative community ties. The Office for Community Partnerships (OCP), Kenyon Young Democratic Socialists of America and Hard Knox Mutual Aid all cooperated in bringing together a variety of strands of activism and community outreach in Gambier.
While the event’s title referenced “mutualism” — a specific economic theory — the focus was firmly on practical “mutual aid”: the direct, reciprocal exchange of resources within a community. Heer to Serve and Hard Knox Mutual Aid both fall under the umbrella of mutual aid organizations. In a broad sense, mutual aid is the voluntary exchange of items or currency between individuals. It differs from charity in that there is no specific receiving population but rather the organization is a vehicle to attach community members’ needs to those who can fulfill them.
The panel consisted of Professor of American Studies John Rufo, Professor of Sociology Nicholas Theis, President of Knox County Pride Alliance Heather Petersen, founder of Heer to Serve Emily Myers and President of Hard Knox Mutual Aid Kayla Hughes. As organizer Max Fishman ’26 described it in their introduction, there was “a mix of professionalism, activism and academia here to discuss the theme of today’s gathering, which is mutualism in action.”
The panel itself discussed the organizers’ experience with mutual aid and the strategies they use to engage their community. Hughes and Myers described their experience in mutual aid as eye-opening, and urged all students interested in service work to talk to people of all backgrounds. By identifying needs and working earnestly to meet them, change can be achieved, they explained. Hughes described one instance in which Myers, following this formula, identified a need from the local unhoused population for consistent heating and has since “pestered” Blue Rhino, a propane company, to partner with Heer to Serve to provide propane to the unhoused.
The event was designed to echo this concept. The ballroom was lined with activist organizations from Gambier, Mount Vernon and the greater Knox County area. The event was intended for these groups to get in contact with each other so that they might forge stronger bonds of cooperation. During the networking period, seats often emptied as representatives moved between tables to connect.
Some organizations were also tabling for a specific cause. Ohio Equal Rights was present with two petitions, the first proposing an amendment to the Ohio constitution to include strong equal rights language, and the second to change language regarding marriage to guarantee the protection of same sex marriage equality and raise the minimum marriage age in Ohio to 18. (The current age is 17, with the consent of a juvenile court.)
The Knox Socialist League (KSL) was also tabling. KSL describes itself as “a leftist, big-tent organization focused on rural organizing.” KSL was tabled near the Knox County Pride Alliance and Kenyon Students for Justice in Palestine, generating significant traffic to that side of the room.
For Kenyon students who were unaffiliated with any activist group, the event offered an opportunity to speak candidly with student activists and community organizers in Knox County, or simply enjoy some tacos. Alyssa Gómez Lawrence ’10, the OCP’s associate director in community engaged learning and internships, told the Collegian that events like these are part of the OCP’s mission to connect students with the larger community and engage in work and society outside of Kenyon.
Emails promoting the event specified that free childcare and transportation would be provided for registered participants, and there was a lively group of children gathered in the nearby game room. Attendees could occasionally hear them during the panel from the other side of the building.
Many Kenyon students do continue their lives post graduation in Knox County, so events like these help them establish ties to the community that may be beneficial for students in the long run. Mutual aid, after all, is very much the essence of community: to see another person with a need that you can fill and working to fill it, and not doing so with any expectation of reward, but only personal belief that they would do the same in your shoes.