Reborn Oklahoma City neighborhood is finalist for national award
Jeanna Daniel was fed up.
Graffiti dotted every street of her neighborhood in southwest Oklahoma City. Drug dealers and users went to the neighborhood park more than children did, she said. Trash was strewed everywhere.
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HOW TO HELP
The Riverpark Neighborhood Association needs to raise about $4,000 to make the trip to Alaska for the national conference. Donations are tax deductible and may be sent to Neighborhood Alliance, 1236 NW 35, Oklahoma City, OK 73118. Earmark gifts with “Alaska.” Donations also can be made at www.nacok.org.
Daniel was sick of it all, so she started to organize.
The police gang unit came in. Residents banded together to form the Riverpark Neighborhood Association. Daniel won grant money and recruited volunteers. The park transformed, along with the rest of the neighborhood. Crime dropped. A children's soccer league was formed. Nearly 100 homes have been rehabbed.
What's left, she said, is something new.
“You would never know the changes that have happened there,” said Daniel, 52. “Nothing happens overnight. It's been a lot of work. We've been successful because of that.”
Now the Riverpark Neighborhood is a finalist for the 2011 Neighborhood of the Year Award from Neighborhoods, USA, a national nonprofit group. The winner will be announced May 27 at the national conference, which will be in Anchorage, Alaska.
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Carrie Coppernoll is a columnist and reporter. She was named the top personal columnist in Oklahoma in 2009 and 2010 by the Associated Press and...
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