Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 2, 1995 TAG: 9511020003
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's nestled in a quiet valley between the south foot of Mill Mountain and Roanoke Mountain (natives still call it by its old name, Yellow Mountain) and gets its rural atmosphere from ample vacant lots with many trees. Most of its streets resemble country lanes.
Hancock and her husband, Charlie Hancock, are two of the area's greatest promoters. Charlie Hancock is president of the Garden City Civic League, an old organization that pulls the people together. Helen Hancock is a vice president and also works at the Garden City Community Center.
Many of the Garden City residents have lived there all their lives and are proud of the area. They know each other and pull together on community projects.
It was this cooperative spirit that recently earned several awards for four Garden City residents and the civic league at the annual Roanoke Neighborhood Partnership's annual awards ceremony.
They were cited for various achievements, and the nearly 50-year-old civic league won the partnership's annual Barbara Dowdy Neighborhood Improvement Award for transforming an unsightly corner into an attractive mini-park.
The mini-park, with a Garden City community sign, is at Garden City Boulevard and Yellow Mountain Road and is the most visible monument to the community's efforts toward collective betterment.
To create the park, about 20 Garden City citizens pitched in and converted the unused and unsightly piece of property into an area that is now a point of community pride. It is considered the gateway into the area.
Three years ago, when the civic league began its project, an old building - an eyesore - stood on the corner, said Charles Hancock.
On behalf of the civic league, he approached the owner of the property, Edith Young, who lives in an eight-room house on the site. Young's late husband, Charlie, operated a store in the building for many years, but closed it in the mid-1970s.
Young said she supported the civic league's plan to beautify the corner and pledged her cooperation. She wanted to donate the property to the city with a provision that the civic league be allowed to develop it into a small park, but several legalities prevented that. So, Young said, she decided to bear the almost $3,000 expense herself of removing the old building.
Maintaining ownership of the land, Young then gave the civic league almost a perpetual right to develop and maintain the park.
Young has given the civic league a free hand on the property. "I don't try to tell them what to do," she said. "They can do what they want to, and they've done a wonderful job."
Gary Webb, president and an owner of Mulch 'N More, a landscape and gardening supply business, contributed materials and his professional know-how for the park. "I was born and raised in Garden City," he said, explaining his contribution. "This is my neighborhood, and my parents still live here."
Webb himself lives close by on Rock Hill Drive, which he said is not quite in Garden City but close enough for him to participate in Garden City activities. He is a member of the civic league.
Also, he said, his first business began in the neighborhood with a store at Welcome Valley and Old Rocky Mountain roads.
A number of the other people who helped with the park's development also were honored by the Neighborhood Partnership's award to the community.
Walter "Pancho" Conner, who works in the gardening division of the Roanoke Department of Parks and Recreation, was recognized for the advice he gave the mini-park developers.
Sidney "Porky" Willis was recognized as a neighborhood leader. He is recognized as a Good Samaritan who performs a variety of tasks for the civic league and Garden City Baptist Church, where he is treasurer and a member of the property committee.
The citation said Willis is known throughout the neighborhood as one who goes to the aid of any Garden City resident in need.
Willis, however, hesitates to take credit. He said there are many others who help, also.
"We're all together," he said.
Caryn Newcomb, 16, received the partnership's Youth Volunteer Award. She attends Patrick Henry High School and is active in Garden City Baptist Church and its youth program and sings in the church choir. She also is active in a community youth program at New Hope Christian Church.
Additionally, she is a volunteer at the SPCA and nursing homes. Last summer, her award citation said, she sat daily with an elderly member of her church.
by CNB