THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: Thursday, August 10, 1995 TAG: 9508100001 SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL TYPE: Editorial LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
A short time ago, a group of downtown-Portsmouth residents set out to save an abandoned and sorely dilapidated house that was being ill-used by derelicts. They intend to sell the restored dwelling to someone who will live in it, love it and care for it.
The community-enriching activity of these house savers commands admiration and applause. So, too, does the grass-roots movement in Portsmouth to transform the Hoffler Creek area, which includes a lake and wetlands, into a wildlife preserve.
The state of Virginia has offered to convey the 142-acre Hoffler Creek property to Portsmouth if the site is designated a wildlife refuge. City Hall first rejected the gift - Portsmouth is an ever financially stressed municipality - but now City Council has blessed the citizen effort to create a wildlife refuge and assigned a committee the task of producing a preservation plan.
The Ivy Creek Wildlife Preserve in Charlottesville seems a plausible model for the Portsmouth people. A private nonprofit foundation, not Charlottesville, is the preserve's custodian.
It's heartening when ordinary people unite to promote worthy causes. This happens a lot, else the world would be a far worse place than it is, but never enough. When it happens, it should be praised because it is praiseworthy. And such civic-spirited acts must be encouraged. They promote civility, healing and community. They are products of caring for others and improving the environment in which all of us live and move and have our being. They must not be taken for granted. We can never have enough of them.
The late Shirley Winters, a Portsmouth resident, journalist and clubwoman, never tired of saying that no one would have to do a lot to improve his or her community if everybody did a little. She was right - and right to remind everyone again and again of that simple truth. She would be first to cheer the civic-spirited band bent on assuring Hoffler Creek's future as a wildlife preserve and a place of beauty and joy forever. by CNB