By Leslie Collins
Northeast News
August 1, 2012

Six Historic Northeast residents have earned Kansas City’s Good Neighbor Award.

This year, 31 Kansas Citians will receive the honor and those in Northeast include Julie Duvall, Kristin Johnson, Rick Jones, Rebecca Koop, Christy Maddux and Jessica Ray.

What’s unique about the Northeast nominations is that residents were nominated by individuals who don’t live in the same neighborhood, said Venessa Huskey of the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department.

Now in its sixth year, the Good Neighbor Award was born out of calls to the city’s 3-1-1 Action Center. As residents complained about city services, they also revealed how neighbors were stepping up to mow lawns and address other issues.

“There’s some really good stories out there,” Huskey said of the nominations.

There’s the neighbor who helped another neighbor find a job and then drove that individual to work until enough money was earned to purchase a vehicle. One couple used their money to remove a neighbor’s graffiti, repaint the wall and plant flowers. One of Huskey’s favorite examples is how a 12-year-old boy began mowing the lawn of a recently divorced woman. The boy cut the grass in secret and the woman simply thought her grass wasn’t growing.

Honoring residents with the Good Neighbor Award is the city’s way of saying, “thank you,” she said.

“Thank you for helping us maintain and support the quality of life in Kansas City neighborhoods,” she said.

Good Neighbor recipients will be honored with plaques at 6 p.m. during the National Night Out Against Crime on Tuesday, Aug. 7, at Swope Park.