The first statewide awards for Missouri Good Neighbor Week were announced by the joint sponsors of the campaign, University of Missouri Extension in Greene County and The Hopeful Neighborhood Project, headquartered in St. Louis.
Missourians from all walks of life celebrated the first Missouri Good Neighbor Week, Sept. 28 to Oct. 4, by doing and reporting neighboring acts and nominating others as the most engaged neighbors in their respective counties.
The MU Extension county councils will do county-level recognition in counties where residents submitted actions or made nominations. This recognition will vary among counties. In Greene County, the local extension office will send each local award winner a check and certificate.
The goal for the week had been to document 10,000 acts of neighboring. But instead, Missourians reported 12,594 acts of neighboring during Missouri Good Neighbor Week.
During the week, there were also 40,765 visits to MissouriGoodNeighborWeek.com and more than 290,000 social media views on posts related to Missouri Good Neighbor Week.
"I love discussing these acts of neighboring," said David Burton, MU Extension community development specialist. "These are the stories that do not normally make the news but are the behaviors that are impactful to our own health, community and democracy."
According to Jennifer Prophete, program director for The Hopeful Neighborhood Project, reading about neighboring acts across Missouri was inspiring.
"There were big events like the rose giveaway in Houston and simpler efforts across the state," said Prophete. "Every story of an individual going out of their way for their neighbors was inspiring. Great job, Missourians!"
For the first time, participants also had the opportunity to nominate their neighbors as the most engaged neighbor in Missouri. By the end of the week, organizers had received nominations or reports of neighboring from 63 of Missouri's 114 counties.
With 115 nominations, the judges decided to expand the awards to the top 10% of nominations. Every person nominated received a $10 Amazon card and some neighboring items from The Hopeful Neighborhood Project.
When judging the statewide nominations, the committee leaned heavily toward individuals that received more than one nomination.
"The quality of the nominations exceeded our expectations which is why we could not narrow them down to just the top three statewide," said Burton. "We know some individuals will also be honored at the county level, but the example of these top 11 nominations are worthy as examples to all of us statewide as we strive to become more engaged neighbors."
The 2022 recipients of the Most Engaged Neighbor Award for Missouri:
Acts of Neighboring Category
Best of Missouri Award -- Sharon Taylor Gullett, Springfield
Best of Rural Missouri Award -- Sonja Baldwin, Highlandville
Best of Urban Missouri Award -- Susan Peck, Maplewood
Diversity in Neighboring Award -- Cheree Trent Mills, St. Louis
Judges Choice Award -- Shari McCallister, Houston
Best of Missouri (Youth Award) -- Anna Sophia Pennock, Webb City
Most Engaged Neighbor in Missouri
Alyssa and Bobby Smith (Albany, Gentry County)
Echo Alexzander (Highlandville, Christian County)
Kayla Henderson (Webb City, Jasper County)
Sierra Lerma (Salem, Dent County)
Philip Weidinger (Columbia, Boone County)
Shari McCallister (Houston, Texas County)
Pam Schultz (Ewing, Lewis County)
Olivia Oglesby (Kirkwood, St. Louis County)
Tom Gibson (Kirkwood, St. Louis County)
Lee Howard (Lamar, Barton County)
Pamela S. Buhr (Springfield, Greene County)
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation HB1738 on July 1, 2022, establishing the special week.
The celebration began on Sept. 28, also National Good Neighbor Day (first created in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter). The week is jointly organized by University of Missouri Extension and the Hopeful Neighborhood Project.
Neighboring is the art and skill of building relationships with the people who live closest to you. Being a good neighbor offers tremendous health benefits, reduces crime, reduces loneliness, combats depression and improves communities and the quality of life.
For more information contact David Burton, community development specialist with University of Missouri Extension, at 417-881-8909 or burtond@missouri.edu. Jennifer Prophete, program director for the Hopeful Neighborhood Project can be emailed at Jennifer.prophete@lhm.org.
The Engaged Neighbor program is on MU Extension's website at http://extension.missouri.edu, and David Burton can be reached at burtond@missouri.edu. You can also learn more about the Hopeful Neighborhood Project at https://www.hopefulneighborhood.org.
Categories: Missouri, Rural Lifestyle