“Just step one” – OUR VIEW | CAMPAIGN 2008 – 6 Nov 2008 P-D

To understand why Barack Obama is president-elect of the United States, it helps to visit the old Lester’s Music Store on the corner of 39th Street and Castleman Avenue and talk to Renée Racette.

Ms. Racette – and an army of others like her who worked in storefront field offices across the nation – helped mobilize the “ground game” that got out the vote for Mr. Obama. That Mr. Obama apparently failed to carry Missouri daunts her not at all. She thinks she’s onto something.

The election is “just step one,” she says. “It’s just the affirmation of all the work we’ve done so far, showing what is possible when volunteers come together and unite behind a cause.”

The old store in St. Louis’ Shaw neighborhood was the site of nearly constant activity from the moment it opened as the first Obama for President field office in Missouri. On Election Eve, Ms. Racette, 25, was at the office’s “command post,” fielding inquiries while making entries in her laptop databases.

She came to St. Louis from Wisconsin three years ago to join the Teach for America program as a chemistry teacher at the city’s Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. Ms. Racette was a polling place director for Barack Obama – a volunteer coordinating and supervising other volunteers at four local polling places.

On election day, she got to work at 4:45 a.m. to supervise her team. Despite long lines and heavy turnouts, by mid-afternoon Ms. Racette had only one incident to report on her beat: A Band-Aid had to be dispatched to a voter who cut his finger.

Education is the key issue that propelled her.”The achievement gap we see here in the city of St. Louis and in other urban areas across the country is not going to get solved by more testing,” Ms. Racette said. “It’s going to get solved by getting those kids proper nutrition in the pre-K years. . . stimulating their brains. . . getting them tested for lead, all those basic medical-physical needs, getting those addressed early.”

Ms. Racette was back at her teacher’s job on Wednesday, taking 20 girls on a field trip to Washington University, which was hosting a “women in science day.”

She said her students are “insanely happy” about the outcome of the election and that they “intuitively recognized” that it “could change the world in ways we can’t today anticipate.”

“I feel we’ve set up a good network, that now I know in my own neighborhood who’s willing to work for change and take steps forward as a team,” Ms. Racette said, adding that the shared experience can serve as “glue that brings together elements of social progress.”

SHAW AREA HOUSE GETS A FACE-LIFT FROM LUTHERAN YOUTH GROUP – 6 Jul 2000 P-D

Youths in town for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s meeting volunteered for various service projects in the St. Louis area.

Elizabeth Stervinou, 15, of San Antonio stood at a tall window carefully painting woodwork that probably dated to the turn of the century in a red-brick house in the Shaw neighborhood.

“I’m wonderful,” said Elizabeth, describing her mood to anyone who would listen. “I’m wonderful because I am helping people.” A big smile lit her tan face.

Elizabeth was one of 38,000 youth in town for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s meeting, called Dancing at the Cross Roads. The meeting will end Sunday.

Some 13,000 of the youngsters signed up to help with volunteer service projects throughout the St. Louis area. Youngsters and their sponsors built houses, landscaped neighborhoods, fixed rickety steps, read to children and spent time with the elderly.

Elizabeth, four other young people and their sponsor, Jackie Durkee, were painting the dining room and scraping the front porch at Helen Long’s home in the 4200 block of Castleman Avenue.

A few years ago, a fire destroyed much of the Long home. Long paid workmen to fix it up, but they left gaping holes in the plaster on the second floor and failed to paint much of the house. A knee injury and osteoarthritis made it impossible for Long, 75, to do the work herself.

Her daughter, Cindy Long-Busch, tried to help, but the job was too much for the two women. Long is in Carlsbad, Calif., to visit another daughter. Long-Busch has received two blitzes of help, which she calls blessings, that will aid her in getting the house in shape for her mother’s return.

The first assist was a visit the week before Fathers Day from the youth group of First United Methodist Church of Loveland, Colo. They started the painting. The hallway is a clean white.

The second blessing was the arrival of the youngsters from the Zion Lutheran Church of Helotes in San Antonio, Texas. Busch-Long’s neighbors, Wayne and Elaine Kidwell, arranged for both visits.

Last week, the Lutheran youngsters, all clad in turquoise T-shirts, swarmed over the big old house. All of them claimed to be experienced painters.

“You can’t believe how many times I painted my parents’ house,” said Brad Harlan, 15. Brad, a slender lad with a blond crewcut, said he had come inside to work because he had fallen off the ladder outside twice in 90 minutes. He blamed the ladder.

His friends laughed. Durkee, 36, the youngsters’ sponsor, took one of the toughest jobs for herself. She painted the 12-foot-high ceiling. With a paint roller on an extension pole, she smoothly rolled the white paint over the ceiling. The only telltale signs of her work were a white-paint mark above her lip and a white stripe or two on her arms. Little by little, the dingy dining room was transformed into a bright, white, light-filled space.

“These are good people,” said Cindy Long-Busch. “You see things like this on TV, but you don’t think it could happen to you.”

WORD ON THE STREET FORETOLD KILLINGS – 14 Oct 1994 P-D

Geraldine Neely had heard the rumors on the street: Her three sons would be killed before they could testify about a murder they had witnessed.

The sons weren’t worried, but Neely was, she said.

“I was afraid for them,” she said Thursday.

Hours earlier, a gunman killed two of her sons in front of her home, in the 4200 block of Castleman Avenue in the Shaw neighborhood.

Paul Neely, 18, was shot in the chest; his brother Marvel “Rico” Reed, 17, was hit in the left side.

They were killed about 12:30 a.m. Thursday, apparently by a lone gunman on foot, police say.

The third brother, Charles Reed, 20, was not there when the shooting happened.

Homicide detectives were looking Thursday evening for a 20-year-old man as a potential suspect.

“We’re not sure if the shooting was to silence witnesses or simply a continuation of a feud that began this summer between two groups of young men,” said chief of detectives Joseph Mokwa.

Police gave the following account of the feud:

It began when Charles Reed and another young man became romantically involved with the same woman.

On July 31, someone shot and wounded Reed. A few days later, a 19-year-old was shot and wounded.

On Aug. 14, a car with four men fired some 20 shots into another car carrying Keith Boyd, 22, and brothers Paul Neely, Marvel Reed and Charles Reed.

The shooting happened at the intersection of 14th Street and Lafayette Avenue; the victims drove to police headquarters for help.

Shot five times, Boyd died.

Within three days, four young men were charged with murder and other crimes. All are in jail.

Paul Neely and the two Reeds missed one grand jury appointment and were scheduled to appear again on Oct. 20, police said.

Mokwa said he does not believe the killing of Paul Neely and Marvel Reed will destroy the case against the four suspects in Boyd’s murder.

He said police were worried about further retaliation and that extra officers had been assigned to the Shaw neighborhood.

Sidewalk at 4200 block of Castleman Ave

from personal collection