Before summer arrives and Rowan Countians  head off on well-deserved vacations, many non-profit groups are making final, inventive pushes to raise money.

Families First, an under-appreciated organization that takes on uncomfortable duties in the name of doing what’s best for children and parents, has launched a monthlong campaign to raise at least $5,000 for its Second Step anti-bullying program.

For every $5 donated, Families First volunteers fold  a piece of paper into a crane. Those cranes — the goal is 1,000 — will be displayed in a window at Salisbury Wine Shop.

As a way of coming together, residents and church congregations in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood are planning a big yard sale May 30. Proceeds will go toward having community work days and helping improve distressed properties in Chestnut Hill, which has made the first steps of what could be a great comeback.

A huge crowd attended Waterworks Visual Arts Center’s “Wake Up with Waterworks” visionary breakfast this past week, and part of the program featured live interviews with plein air artists who were in the downtown painting scenes.

Meanwhile, back at the Trolley Barn, other “artists in action” included potter Brent Smith, photographer Michelle Spieler, cartoonist Mark Brincefield and artists Marietta Foster Smith, Karen Frazer and Ashley Hinceman.

To see this kind of talent at work was a great way to remind those who attended the fund-raising breakfast of what City Councilwoman Karen Alexander said she learned growing up in a home where creativity and the arts were appreciated.

“I knew that art was essential to the human experience,” she said.  “… The arts were a family affair for us.”

Today, Alexander can see the impact Waterworks’ many programs for children have had on her grandchildren, Isabella and Mason. Isabella participated, for example, in the “Messy Art” program when she was a pre-schooler. Now she’s involved in Waterworks’ digital photography and contemporary drawing courses.

When David Faber, a Wake Forest University professor of art, told the crowd that art represents the nourishment, oxygen, water and spirit to his soul, you believed him. Humans have an irrepressible creative spirit that needs to be valued and given room to flourish and grow.

Places such as Waterworks do this. Beyond its great gallery exhibits each year, Waterworks also is a training ground with some 50 classes a year for all ages, not to mention 20 scholarships. Waterworks is a place to celebrate the diversity of minds and talents. Dr. Mark Riley, fine arts chairman at Carson High School, said Waterworks makes a difference in people’s lives, meaning it’s a place for the future.

We need more of those. It might take the shape of cranes, yard sales or art, but people keep doing things that make Rowan County a good place to live — a good place to come back to after that summer vacation.