Historical Fall 2001 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
A couple of years ago, some newer younger Skinker-DeBaliviere residents said that 1) they didn’t know what the Skinker-DeBaliviere Community Council did, and 2) they didn’t know how to get involved in our community. Since then, the Council has taken steps to better inform residents as to what it does, holding annual public meetings; updating and maintaining the Skinker-DeBaliviere web page at http://stlouis.missouri.org/skinkerdebaliviere, contributing articles to this newspaper; and creating and using electronic mail lists for updates by the Council office and myself. And still more can be done.
This article addresses the second concern, how to get involved. Though there have been individual conversations, bring it to the whole neighborhood is important, because volunteers are the backbone of the vitality of our neighborhood, and the ranks have become thin, with sometimes too few having to do too much. One of the harder things to balance is the recognition of people’s contributions.
Most volunteers give of themselves because giving to others, having an impact on the community in which they live, and on other people’s lives, matters to them, so too much praise can make them uncomfortable. Having the spotlight shining on them is not what motivates them.
On the other hand, if no one notices. says thank you, it is legitimate to wonder their efforts matter or are having any impact. Volunteers usually don’t do marketing surveys to see what was “needed”.
They usually observe that something needs to be done, sometime they were asked. but after a while, if few others step up to the plate, it is essential that we not only say thank you, but get involved ourselves.
This article is my effort to say thank you to some wonderful residents of our community, and it is a request for those of you who may not be volunteering and might have some time, no matter how little, to think about and act on getting involved.
As you read through the names and volunteer efforts, and perhaps you spot something you’d like to be involved in, or don’t spot it and think our neighborhood would be the better for it and you are willing to help do it, please contact Laure Porterfield at the Council office at 862-5122, and the e-mail address is skinkerd@stlouisatiLsouri.orq.
Please note that of the people mentioned, none knew that this was being written; so that any errors or omissions are my responsibility alone.
The following notes are not intended to list even most who give of themselves to the neighborhood, but to provide flavor of who and what support our neighborhood and make life in it that much nicer. Not mentioned for lack of space are the residents who work within the volunteer efforts of the several institutions in our neighborhood (St. Roch, Grace Methodist, and New Cote Brilliante Churches, Washington U., Hamilton and Crossroads School), whose activities also add to the richness of life here, nor those residents who volunteer in organizations and activities outside the neighborhood which add to the richness of life in St. Louis and beyond. I’ll start with visible things: The children’s playground at Kingsbury and Des Peres, came about because a few people under Katrina Stierholz’s leadership saw a need for the playground for our new generation of young children.
They defined the problem, worked on & implemented the solution, raising tens of thousands of dollars from us, grants, and the city, working with the architects, contractors and overcoming bureaucratic obstacles to get it built over a more than two year period.
The playground is now a meeting place, not only for children, but for their parents and caretakers, who play with the children, meet each other and forge the bonds of our community.
If that wasn’t enough, Katrina is leading the effort to develop a plan to renovate Lucier Park, currently not in good shape and mostly unused but the only large public park sized space in our neighborhood.
Then there are our two community gardens, Andy Cross providing leadership in creating and maintaining the one in the 5900 block of McPherson, Ronie Haliburton playing the same role for the one in the 5800 block of Westminster. Not only have these gardens won numerous gardening awards, but like the playground. they serve as a community meeting place, where residents who love growing things meet while working, talk and share their common interests and forge the bonds of our community.
Another visible thing is our neighborhood newspaper, which you are holding, published for over thirty years. Over the last decade or so, it has been a labor of love by four residents, Lois Schoemehl, Lana Stein, Jo Ann Vatcha, and Marj Weir. Though some read it from cover to cover and others skip and scan, it has helped define our community.
As Lana Stein said at our annual meeting last month, to keep it going “new blood” is needed.
We have many talented writers in the neighborhood, so this is an appeal for you to step forward and contact the Times to help out, not just in writing, but in the tasks of editing, laying out and publishing.
When code enforcement was to take place this year, it was realized that people with fixed incomes might be unable to meet the costs of fixing up the exterior violations of their homes. John Thomas helped lead the effort to both distribute some unused housing funds the Council held in trust, but also to bring in volunteers from our several churches and out of town youth to help repair many homes for needful residents late last summer. For many years the Skinker-DeBaliviere Housing Corporation, a low profile non-profit, separate from the Council, has been rehabilitating, managing, and selling multi-family homes & buildings in our neighborhood. Susie Feinberg and Karleen Hoerr provided the leadership of that hard working board for many years; Chris Manzo has just been chosen to lead the group.
In the area of events that enrich our community, most people may know of our annual Rags to Riches outdoor “garage” sale each August. Though started in the Rosedale neighborhood many years ago, it is becoming a neighborhood wide event. Leadership has been provided by RNA presidents, most recently, Tim Schoemehl, Amy Gill, Katrina Stierholz, and Julie Schoemehl.
The West End Community Picnic is an annual event with great food, entertainment for children, and time for conversation, the brainchild of, organized and run for many, many years by Shirley Polk and other volunteers.
The annual Halloween party at St. Roch Church is the brainchild of, organized, and run for many years by Art Santen and other volunteers. Instead of residents answering their doors to trick-or-treaters through the entire late afternoon and evening, as in other communities, Art’s many year’s labor of love has provided a special time of enjoyment for our children with entertainment and treats at the party, followed by a time for trick or treating ending at 8 p.m.. National Night Out has become a very special community event here, attracting about 200-300 residents and many political leaders in the last two years, through the efforts of Laure Porterfield, Katrina Stierholz, and many other volunteers, who cook the franks & brats, sell the tickets, ice cream and staff the many other tables.
A recent “fund raising” event, held in late spring, the Breakfast Neighborhood Garden tour, has become a community event. Andy Cross’ leadership has been assisted by Ronie Haliburton, Susan Littlefield and other volunteers.
There are less visible events, and activities that do not take place every year, such as our Annual food drive, an effort led by Lara Doyle and Shirley Polk, and the most recent West End Arts Council event, the WildPlyWood artistic happening, with Andy Cross, Sheri Speed-Gray, Katrina Stierholz and Shelly Parker most visible. Paul Hohmann volunteered his leadership for over five years in the effort to make sure that the MetroLink extension does not harm the neighborhood at the same time its additional service adds to it. Katrina Stierholz and John Van Emden have provided essential leadership for invigorating the Council’s presence on the web, and for helping the Council make the technological leap into a more automated and efficient office. Tom Urbom is to be complimented for his able work as the Council’s web site webmaster.
Most recently Katie Kurtz along with the Historic District Review Committee is just starting to reinvigorate the protections for our neighborhood offered by our status as a city historic district, and Sole Van Emden is just starting to spearhead an effort to create a neighborhood plan where we will have an opportunity to define what kind of a neighborhood we’d like to be, what to preserve, and what to add.
As regards the Council, 19 of us meet monthly, hear and as needed act on reports from the neighborhood and Council committees. Members are selected either by the institutional members (one each from St. Roch, Grace Methodist, New Cote Brilliante Church of God, and Washington University) and from our component neighborhoods. Parkview selects two of their agents to serve on the Council, Rosedale selects its five representatives at their annual meeting, Kingsbury Square its one similarly, and the 6 representatives from Washington Heights are at-large members. Council members volunteer their time, and sometimes make financial contributions to neighborhood activities. Beyond recognizing the contributions of my fellow Council members, I would like to recognize the dedicated service of my immediate predecessors as President, Gary Hayes, and Beth Bender. And last but not least I want to recognize the dedicated service of the Council’s Executive Director, Laure Porterfield, who volunteers to work in excess of a 5 day, 40 hour work week, it seems part of almost every other weekend, for her also, our neighborhood is a labor of love.
We can be proud of ourselves as a neighborhood because the people within it like those mentioned above do so much for all of us.
Please ask yourself, that beyond our physical advantages of fine old homes, if this be as attractive a community to live in if these things were not here, or these activities and others I’m sure I left out, were not happening.
If you are not already participating, and you would like to do so, what can you do?
The main point of contact is Laure Porterfield, the Council’s Executive Director, call her at the Council office, 562-5122, and she will put you in touch with people already doing it, or if it is a new idea. bring it to the Council’s attention.
There is one last idea to leave with you.
There are many people. time challenged because of family, career, and other volunteering, who want to do something. but can’t be the organizer, or attend regular meetings.
If you can put in 2 or 4 hours every few months on a specific activity, ask Laure to put you on our new “on call” list of people we can call to help out at events like the Breakfast Garden Tour, National Night Out, etc.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Fall 2001.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Closing contact prints 562-5122 whereas earlier passage and other notices use 862-5122. Original numbers preserved.
Original source: SD_Times2001_09.pdf, printed page(s) 3; PDF page(s) 3.
