Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 9, 1993 TAG: 9309090425
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN A. COYLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Saturday the two bumped into each other for the first time in 10 years - at a neighborhood reunion and family day festival, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Hurt Park Neighborhood Alliance.
Young, who left the neighborhood 37 years ago, now lives in Northwest Roanoke. Childress has lived in Hurt Park since 1942.
Childress said she thinks the organization has helped people want to get together. "I don't know of a better example than to see the picture of what was sitting in this park today," she said. "There were a lot of adults and children, and that's what we need."
Saturday's rain may have dampened the attendance, but not the spirits of those who braved the intermittent showers. Beneath a rainbow of umbrellas and canopies scattered throughout Perry Park, neighbors and friends renewed acquaintances and swayed to the sounds of the Soulettes and Sub-Zero, Ready and Willing and others.
Vickie Jennings, 37, took time out from her volunteer security detail to talk about what the organization has meant to her. She was a teen-ager when the alliance - originally called the Black Southwest Neighborhood Alliance - was formed.
From the beginning, the group got her and other teens involved - helping to clean up abandoned fields, doing arts and crafts and going on outings.
The group's "Rent-A-Kid" program helped her and other kids learn responsibility by cleaning attics and basements, Jennings said. A portion of the money they earned went to the organization.
"They were always there as we grew older, if we needed a reference or something," Jennings said of the adults in the group. "If we couldn't talk to our parents or them, we could talk to each other."
When the organization was founded by Martha J. Ogden in 1973, it identified three main issues, according to a program published for the celebration: "community recreation, the need to rid the area of dangerous and unsightly vacant lots and houses, and the need to improve services to the senior citizens."
Ogden is still active, serving as this year's vice president. Her husband, Otis, is president.
Perry Park was built as a result of the group's efforts. More recently, the group helped get a C.O.P.E. Unit - a city police foot patrol - in the neighborhood and steer it in the right direction, said Norma Smith.
Even those who have moved away returned Saturday to support the alliance and the neighborhood.
Mike Franklin, who organized a youth basketball tournament for the celebration lives in Northwest Roanoke. He said he didn't mind using a vacation day from his job as an outreach counselor at the juvenile detention center in Coyner Springs to work on the event. He also didn't seem to mind that the basketball court he supervised was built where his house once stood.
"I still enjoy working, giving something something back to these kids," said Bill Hankins, who grew up in Hurt Park but now lives in Northwest Roanoke. ` "I wouldn't miss this for nothing," said Darnell Watkins, who grew up in the neighborhood but now lives in Northwest Roanoke.
Franklin's sister, Sharon Franklin, who now lives in Falls Church, said she saw 10 people she hadn't seen in 25 years.
Watkins and Sharon Franklin reminisced about the annual neighborhood block parties they attended as kids, held Labor Day weekends on the block that is now the site of the park.
And they shook their heads in disbelief as they watched the child of a friend walk across the basketball court with his two young sons trailing behind.
"These kids - they're grown now and got children of their own. It'll blow you away," said Watkins. "It'll blow you away."
by CNB