Cincinnati's Riots: One year later

Sunday, April 7, 2002

Mount Healthy:
'It's one neighbor helping another'

By Cindy Krantz, ckranz@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MOUNT HEALTHY -- People here are working on a youth mission to rehab homes this summer. Community education programs are on their agenda, too.

Many involved in Neighbor to Neighbor also are members of the Mount Healthy Community Coalition, which was organized last fall.

''We are all different,'' says Mike Neal, 36, a Mount Healthy police officer and coalition member. ''We have to sit down and talk it out and see where we're all coming from.''

The coalition is seeking donations from businesses so it can sponsor a booth during Heritage Days, the weekend of May 17. Organizers want to print materials informing people about issues ranging from racial diversity to substance abuse to violence prevention.

While Mount Healthy is mostly white, the school district is about 60 percent African-American. ''Obviously, those kids spend a lot of time in the Mount Healthy community,'' says Viki McCorkel, 29, who coordinates drug safety programs for Mt. Healthy schools.

She'd like to to see more local churches involved and hopes this summer's housing rehab project will be a catalyst.

From July 29 to Aug. 2, about 300 teens and adults from all over the country will fix up about 25 houses here for free. Churches and the school district will help feed and lodge visitors. It's all part of World Changers, the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board's project to renovate homes.

Although the rehab project was planned before the Neighbor to Neighbor conversation, it dovetails nicely.

''It is a Neighbor to Neighbor kind of project because it's one neighbor helping another,'' says Dennis Holmes, 52, a North American Mission Board missionary assigned to Cincinnati.

Says Ms. McCorkel: ''It's not a black or white thing. This is just people helping people.''