SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Seventeen Missourians whose everyday actions build relationships, create belonging and encourage neighbors to care for one another have been selected as Missouri’s Most Engaged Neighbors for 2026. The honorees were selected from 78 nominations submitted as part of Missouri Good Neighbor Week, celebrated annually Sept. 28-Oct. 4. The 2026 Missouri Most Engaged Neighbor honorees are: ●         Paul and Ann Morrison — Fremont Hills  ●         Roy Howard — Blue Springs ●         Meg and Brett Holmes — St. Louis ●         Shawna Galbreath — Fulton ●         Les Cassil — Columbia ●         Sharon Shortino — Lee’s Summit ●         Becky Wiginton — Marble Hill ●         Gretch...

Three Missouri neighborhoods where residents have turned everyday kindness, connection and cooperation into a way of life have been selected as the Missouri’s Most Neighborly Neighborhoods as part of Missouri Good Neighbor Week 2026. The Villas at Wicklow in Nixa (Christian County) earned the top recognition, followed by Castlereagh Estates in Florissant (St. Louis County) and Woodland Heights in Springfield (Greene County). There were a total of 12 nominations this year. Each of the three winning neighborhoods will receive a certificate of recognition and a prize check to support future neighborhood activities, helping residents continue the connections and traditions that earned them statewide recognition. The Most Neighborly Neighborhood award was created to recognize communities where residents actively care for one another, include others and work together to improve the place they call home.  “The best neighborhoods are not necessarily the ones with the biggest events, the n...

Missouri Good Neighbor Week may offer us something we desperately need but rarely recognize: permission to look away from the constant cascade of negativity. I was reminded of that this weekend when I logged onto Facebook to post about Missouri Good Neighbor Week. I visited 14 different community pages on social media, inviting people to share positive stories about neighbors helping neighbors. I knew I had stiff competition. On those same pages were posts about development, traffic, schools, city decisions and other community issues. Some were attracting dozens of comments from the usual collection of armchair community planners, engineers, economists and experts. My posts about neighbors doing good things? Across 14 pages, they generated a grand total of 18 interactions . And no submitted stories. That contrast raises an uncomfortable question. We regularly complain that social media is too negative. We complain that the news is depressing. We worry about division, ang...

Over several days in the middle of September, I had the unusual privilege of reading and scoring  nominations from across the nation for Neighbor of the Year. It was a big job. There were 115 nominations from 34 states to score! By the end, I had read stories about people shoveling snow, repairing cars, delivering food, checking on older adults, welcoming newcomers, organizing neighborhood gatherings, helping people find housing, mentoring young people, preparing communities for wildfire, and simply becoming the person others know they can call. Taken together, the nominations offered something more valuable than a list of good deeds.  They offered a picture of what neighboring looks like in America today. And after the public voted on our Top 10 (over 6,000 votes were cast) we ended up with the first Neighbor of the Year in Neighbor's Bank contest. You can read about Judi Carlson of Dunwoody, Georgia online . The judging rubric asked us to consider six things: positive impact...