A Houston business owner won two awards Thursday in the first statewide awards for Missouri Good Neighbor Week, a campaign organized by University Of Missouri Extension in Greene County and The Hopeful Neighborhood Project in St. Louis.
In the “Acts of Neighboring Category,” the Judges Choice Award went to Shari McCallister of Houston.
The citation reads:
“This award goes to D&L Florist owner Shari McCallister and the citizens of Houston, Mo., who celebrated National Good Neighbor Day on Sept. 28 with 250 dozen roses. Individuals who participated came in and received one dozen roses with the promise to keep one rose for themself and give the other 11 roses to 11 different neighbors and friends. This event was sponsored by different businesses and individuals in the area. All 3,000 roses were gone by 1:30 p.m. New this year, each rose was tagged with a list of sponsors and a ticket to attend a Mister Roger’s movie showing at the community theater. This event began in 2007 when the florist shop gave away 300 roses.”
McCallister also was recognized with a “Most Engaged Neighbor” in Missouri Award. It noted in the citation that she “works so hard to be a good neighbor year-round and leads several community activities.” She was nominated by Elaine Campbell, Melissa Dart and Marsha Martin.
ABOUT GOOD NEIGHBOR WEEK
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 goal for the week had been to document 10,000 acts of neighboring. But instead, Missourians reported 12,594 acts of neighboring. Greene County had the most submissions, accounting for nearly 4,000 of the acts of neighboring.
During the week, there were also 40,765 visits to MissouriGoodNeighborWeek.com webpage and over 290,000 social media views on posts related to Missouri Good Neighbor Week
“I love discussing these acts of neighboring,” said David Burton, University of Missouri 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,” Prophete said. “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 percent of nominations. Every person nominated received a $10 Amazon card and some neighboring items from The Hopeful Neighborhood Project.
She is indeed a good neighbor. She has been a bright spot for someone used to a big city moving to this sweet little town.