We Are Neighbors

  My name is Nichole Parke, and this is my neighboring story. ( See video on Vimeo here ). Probably seven years ago, God started talking to me about how I could maybe get to know our neighbors. I reached out to people that I know that had done that in their own communities, or had built good relationships with their neighbors. One of them said that they just did a block party one day, they planned a barbecue and invited people to come. So I thought, "Well, I could do that." I started off by organizing an ice cream social. Had a really good turnout, it was a great time. Got to know some of the people we hadn't met, and reconnect with people that we had met, and it was a good time. I thought, "Oh, this is fun. This is the start of something." Then like life gets sometimes, I got busy and I get tired and take on more responsibilities with my job or running my kids around, and I stopped trying to be intentional with it.  I thought for a long time that it should just...

Have you ever spent extra time watching your neighbors from your living room window? A new survey shows that 49 percent of people have watched people from windows or their neighbor's windows. HomeAdvisor surveyed 2,200 Americans in the 25 biggest cities in the United States to find out which cities have the most and least annoying neighbors and most annoying neighbor habits. According to the survey, Denver has the third least annoying neighbors in the country. Denver residents' biggest complaints about their neighbors is when they have loud parties. According to the survey, here are some other interesting facts about Denver neighbors: 98 percent of Denver residents consider themselves good neighbors, 52 percent of Denver residents know most or all of their neighbors, and 54 percent believe them to be friends. These numbers are significant when you consider that 12 years, less than 3 percent of people in this same area knew the names of their neighbors. Several churches ...

It only takes a small act of kindness to make a big difference in the life of someone in your community, like a service provider, a community leader, a lonely person or a neighbor. We have no idea how even the most minuscule gesture might resonate with the recipient. Mental health studies on altruism indicate that doing good deeds reduces stress, improves emotional well-being, and improves physical health. As Mister Fred Rogers said, "The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have but what to do with our blessings. Some people have many blessings and hold them; a few give them away." I’m like most of you in that I’m rarely in a position to do high-profile good deeds. But there is an alternative to doing one superhero headline-grabbing good deed: doing a bunch of low-profile ones. Acts of kindness are often simple gestures that help us be better neighbors, lift others, or make our community a place we love. You are invited to turn talk into action by participating in...

Maxwell King is the best-selling author of "The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers." The book took seven years to write after discovering that there was not already a biography of Mister Rogers. “I later learned from Joanne Rogers, Fred's wife, that numerous people had approached Fred to do a biography. And he had turned them down. So I argued with Joanne for a while, and finally she agreed,” said Maxwell in a recent interview. From the book we learn that Fred Rogers had a difficult childhood. He was lonely, shy, and didn't have a lot of friends. He was introverted. He came from a very wealthy family in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. And his parents, although they were wonderful to him and very caring, very supportive, were overly protective.  He also had a puppet theater in the house where he grew up. Later on television, the puppets were both an expression of facets of his own character, and a wonderful device for him to talk with children about social and emot...

University of Missouri Extension is offering hour-long classes this month that make attendees eligible for a neighborhood mini-grant of $250. The training is also valuable to anyone wanting to learn to become a more engaged neighbor. There is $1,200 in grant money available for neighboring efforts in Ash Grove, $1,600 earmarked for Republic, and $2,500 open to other residents of Springfield and Greene County. The Greene County MU Extension Council provides these monies in partnership with the Greene County Commission. The extension council offered mini-grants in 2021 to help jumpstart neighborhood activities. The money must be applied for on the Greene County MU Extension Council engaged neighbor webpage . After documentation from the event is provided, funds are paid as a reimbursement for actual expenses up to $250. In 2021, 10 neighborhood projects were funded, including a neighborhood ice cream social, neighborhood picnic, neighborhood clean-up day, front porch concert seri...

It only takes a small act of kindness to make a big difference in the life of someone in your community, like a service provider, a community leader, a lonely person or a neighbor. Acts of kindness are often simple gestures that help us be a good neighbor, lift up others, or make our community a place we love. You are invited to turn talk into action by taking part in Greene County MU Extension's "100 Acts of Kindness Challenge" from March 20 to Saturday, March 26, 2022. This challenge is being organized in celebration of Mister Fred Rogers birthday and "Won't You Be My Neighbor Day" on March 20. Our goal is for residents of Greene County to achieve 100 acts of kindness toward their neighbors during the week. No advance registration is needed to participate we do want people to use the MU Extension website to help document the act of kindness you or your family did, if you witnessed an act of kindness, or if you were the recipient of a kind act. Search for t...