THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997 TAG: 9701020061
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Series
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 97 lines
The Virginian-Pilot is following residents of Villa Heights as they attempt to improve their neighborhood so it can contend with crime, blighted housing and kids getting into trouble - the same ills faced by a growing number of communities. This is one of an occasional series.
She's known through Villa Heights as ``that lady who takes the children to pass out fliers.''
A few afternoons every month, just before the regular civic-league meeting. Like clockwork.
When newcomers introduce themselves at league meetings, they often start: ``I got this newsletter from that lady sitting over there.''
That lady is Gail Watts, a civic-league stalwart since the neighborhood group reactivated itself a few years ago.
She's what every civic league needs: a reliable volunteer who makes sure information gets out to the neighborhood, door by door.
Watts not only distributes the newsletters, she's turned it into an activity that gets children involved with the civic league.
They gather on the front porch of Watts' duplex on 28th Street. Regulars include Jamie Golson, 9, and her brother, James, 10, who live downstairs from Watts.
The Golsons may race away for a moment, but it's to round up friends, such as 7-year-old Aleshia Parker.
Once assembled, the children skip ahead of Watts, laughing and singing rhymes like: ``I love you. You love me. Let's get together and tell Barney.''
On every block, Watts halts her entourage and gives each child a fist full of newsletters and their assignments. You take this side of the street. You take that side. You go upstairs. You go downstairs.
``Uh-uh. One to a house,'' Watts reminds the children. ``Skip the ones that are boarded up.''
On Ruffin Way, Aleshia Parker shies from a couple of barking dogs behind a fence. She returns to Watts, who accompanies her down the block.
``I'll bite them!'' Watts reassures the little girl. ``Don't run. That will make them jump that fence!''
At an apartment complex on Waverly Way, an elderly lady sets down her grocery bags on a stoop. A bag falls over, pouring out the food. Watts sends the children to help.
At another apartment building, Watts notices that the lobby is dark. She holds open the outer door so the children can see their way up and down the stairs.
Neighbors on their porches or in their yards get the newsletter delivered to their hands. Watts spends a few minutes chatting up the civic league and hearing what people are thinking about.
She also hears promises: Yeah. I'll be there. We need a strong civic league.
Few follow up.
Sometimes, Watts challenges them. As she rests her left hand on her hip, she tells two men: ``Don't go okay-ing me and not show up!''
The effort pays dividends, but not as often as she'd like.
Watts and the children encounter the everyday scenes of Villa Heights, reminders that the neighborhood's prospects are far from settled.
Watts' own block is an example. The home she bought 12 years ago is flanked by a renovated house on one side and a longtime boarded-up house on the other. Which one foretells the future?
But to many neighbors, it's a hopeful sign to see Watts and the children deliver the newsletters.
Gloria Jones said she went to a civic league meeting after her son, Rashawn, 8, received the newsletter from Aleshia Parker, a schoolmate.
``I'm glad I got involved,'' Jones said after attending her first meeting. ``Life is so precious. You have to take time to get involved, to take care of your community. As you get older, you realize you have to get your priorities right.''
Jones thinks that getting children involved in civic-league activities will draw more parents as well as give children a positive attitude about citizenship.
Watts agrees. Villa Heights, like many neighborhoods these days, doesn't have places where adults and children can hang out together.
She grew up in Portsmouth's Prentiss Park, near Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Her parents, Dulcie Watts and the late Bradford Watts, owned a corner grocery, Watts Open Air Market at Portsmouth Boulevard and Lansing Avenue.
``The store was heated by a kerosene stove,'' Watts recalled. ``In the winter, everyone would be standing around that, talking about anything.''
Neighbors also could buy almost anything there, from milk and blocks of cheese to 50-cent bags of coal and five-gallon cans of oil.
``Everybody knew each other,'' Watts said.
Now, Watts and her young friends are trying to recreate that atmosphere by helping Villa Heights become more neighborly. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Gary C. Knapp
Gail Watts distributes fliers with the help of Villa Heights
children James Golson, 10, right, his sister, Jamie, 9, center, and
Aleshia Parker, 7. Watts says enlisting the kids' help is a way of
getting them involved with the civic league.
Color photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Children help Villa Heights resident Gail Watts pass out fliers on
civic league meetings.
KEYWORDS: SERIES CIVIC LEAGUE VILLA HEIGHTS