September 2005

Kelly is a most unlikely neighborhood hero.  She’s a young adult who lives at home with her folks.  She volunteers in the SLF office twice a week, and sings in her church choir.  She is kind, gentle and a bit shy.  But she has the energy of the Bonneville Power Plant, as we have discovered in the Madison-McCoy area of north Salem.  For years, Kelly and her family were trapped inside their home due to a neighboring drug house.  They made occasional police calls, but didn’t realize other neighbors were concerned, too.  They felt isolated and powerless.  The drug dealers made frequent threats.  Noises all night long; a steady flow of drug customers during the day.  Kelly got fed up. 

She met another neighbor who was forming a Neighborhood Watch group.  Together they began talking with more neighbors.  They discovered they were not alone.  They made contact with police and code enforcement officers, who were a great help.  They locked arms with the Grant and Highland Neighborhood Associations, as well as the North Neighborhoods Community Progress Team (CPT).  They organized monthly meetings; they held two fun block parties; they got a huge dumpster and orchestrated a neighborhood clean-up.  The drug house is gone and others have been served notice.  Neighbors are walking their dogs, fixing up their yards, painting their houses.  Slowly, but surely, the neighborhood is making a comeback.  Thanks to unlikely heroes like Kelly.  One day, Salem-Keizer will be the healthiest community in Oregon.  Truly, the City of Shalom—