In his 1995 essay, “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital,” author Robert Putnam identified the dwindling American community as a great source of social decline. Putnam’s prescient work, which he’d later tun into a book of the same title, identified the deterioration of membership organizations – from labor unions to PTAs – as endemic of a decline in basic democratic functioning. The phenomenon that gave his essay and later book its name was that he noted that solo participation in bowling was growing, yet organized leagues were disappearing. At a time when more people were bowling than ever before, bowling alleys were being forced out of business because the leagues were a much better source of income. Today, 28 years later, declining social participation and civic engagement are still serious issues. But the bowling alleys are all mostly gone, and the new enemy of community is the all-consuming smartphone and the social media streams it delivers. Social scientists have seen an unprecedented growth in loneliness, with some arguing that the stress of loneliness is a serious health concern. It’s nearly impossible for individuals to know what to do in the face of these global concerns. But one thing we can do is work harder to be involved – even if it’s simply to show up at an event and participate in community. This weekend’s Chestnut Hill Community Holiday Parade is a perfect opportunity to do just that. Now in its sixth year, the Chestnut Hill Community Association-sponsored event will take place on Dec. 15 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Parade participants will march or drive from the intersection of Germantown and Rex avenues to the Market at the Fareway. Brien Tilley, former president of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, was the main organizer involved in bringing back the parade, which, before 2013, had last taken place in the mid-90s, right around the time Putnam was making his observations about community decline. Tilley correctly saw the parade as a way to engage the neighborhood in a community activity. In an age in which work and family life often keep us busy at pursuits outside the community, and in Chestnut Hill where many children attend a whole host of different public, private and charter schools, activities like the parade are even more significant. “The main fixture of the parade has been the energy that these groups bring and the support that the community has given,” Tilley told the Local in a story on the parade we ran in November. “We’ve had an amazing combination of all these groups that want to put all their energy into helping celebrate friendship and the holidays. That’s been the greatest success of the parade – just good, old-fashioned fun.” The parade, like many of the other events sponsored by the CHCA, the Chestnut Hill Business District and the Chestnut Hill Conservancy, are essential pieces of that community fabric. But the only way they can succeed is if we participate in them. Pete Mazzaccaro