The Weems Neighborhood Watch program, previously featured in The Examiner, took home two awards from a national competition of neighborhood programs. The awards were handed out last weekend in Spokane, Wash., by a national association of cities and counties.
The watch group won for its Landgreen Street cleanup in June 2008, said group coordinator Cindy Brookshire. The street was targeted by the group for cleanup following the murder of Manassas cab driver Khawaja Ahmed in February 2008. The 48-year-old was fatally shot during a botched robbery.
Brookshire got involved with the Weems Neighborhood Watch program two years ago after finding “a phenomenal amount of litter” while walking her dog, she told The Examiner.
For her, neighborhood watch is more about “just dealing with a crime problem,” she said. “We bring people together so we can better solve problems.”
When volunteers surveyed Landgreen Street, they found trash piled high and tall grass growing in front of several homes, Brookshire said. By cleaning up the trash and mowing the lawns, the group was able “to show the watch’s presence in the neighborhood as a crime deterrent,” she said. They ended the two-day cleanup with an ice cream party in Byrd Park.
Since she joined, Brookshire has seen the watch group double in size to about 100 active members.
Now, the group has been recognized nationally for taking home second place in the National 2009 Neighborhood Program of the Year and second place in the National 2009 Neighborhood of the Year awards from Spokane. The group was up against 12 other neighborhood organizations including groups from Phoenix, Los Angeles and Fort Worth, Texas. The competition was sponsored by the Alliance for Innovation, a national association of cities and counties.
