Some neighborhood residents complain about trash and deteriorating homes in the community. Others, like Jules Videau, decide to do something about the problem.
Videau will be one of the more than 1,500 volunteers expected to converge on Old East Dallas Saturday, April 3, for a day of cleanup and home repair as the Old East Dallas Renaissance Project (OEDRP) kicks off its “Spring Ahead Weekend”.
“It’s a chance to do some good,” says Videau, who lives on Bryan Parkway and works for Mobil Oil Corp., one of the main sponsors of the event.
“I believe the neighborhood has a lot of potential. There’s a lot of enthusiasm for this project over here. You’re going to see a big change in a short period of time.”
OEDRP, a non-profit organization formed last fall, covers 10 square miles in East Dallas. Its goal, as outlined in the group’s mission statement, is to “improve individual properties and public spaces” in response to “community needs and goals as expressed by community representatives.”
Mobil has donated office space and is responsible for 1,000 of the volunteers expected to participate in the cleanup.
“Mobil has always been sensitive to the community,” says Steve Cooney, public affairs advisor for Mobil. He says Mobil has previous experience in neighborhoods with its summer youth education program, the Mobil Gren Team, which is comprised of college students who earn credit hours building brick houses.
Mobil executives became involved with the OEDRP after a call from the local office of the U.S. Department of Justice. The agency was following through with the Attorney General’s “Weed and Seed” program and suggested Mobil take a look at Old East Dallas.
Cooney says he became intrigued after scrutinizing the bylaws and board pledge of OEDRP, as well as noting the strong involvement of the six or more area neighborhood associations.
“We elected to support this Old East Dallas project because of the perceived ability of the active and long-established homeowner associations and crime watch groups,” Cooney says. Those groups “could not only maintain these physical improvements, but build upon them.”
Bill Arnquist, OEDRP special projects chairman, credits Cooney with the concept for “Spring Ahead Weekend”, which includes East Dallas support and manpower from area homeowners and neighborhood associations, another 20 businesses, area churches and schools and social services groups.
The maker of Glad Bags is donating trash bags for the cleanup, and area home builders are supplying most of the materials for the home repair portion of the program.
Other sponsors include Monsanto, the City of Dallas, Baylor University Medical Center, Justine’s Milam Gallery and Studio, La Posada, Swiss Avenue Bank, the Staubach Company, Lone Star Gas, TU Electric, Southwestern Bell and Clean Dallas.
“Spring Ahead Weekend” begins at 6 a.m., when volunteers gather for setup and staging at East Dallas Christian Church, 629 North Peak.
Working until 5 p.m., volunteers will perform home improvements on more than 25 selected homes, landscaping and street beautification and the cleaning of area parks, rights of way and alleys.
From 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, sponsors will host a festival at Buckner Park at Carroll and Victor for volunteers and residents. The event will feature food, vendors and entertainment reflecting the neighborhood’s ethnic diversity.
The festival will also present a political forum from 2-3 p.m., led by candidates from three Dallas City Council districts.
“Old East Dallas is at a crossroads,” says Tom Moore, an attorney with Locke, Purnell, Rain & Harrell, and president of OEDRP, “and the economic development of Dallas has largely passed us by.”
Moore said in a recent newsletter: “Rundown areas are magnets to drug traffickers and criminals, and there is now a legitimate fear that if we do not wage an all-out battle against these elements, Old East Dallas will be largely unfit for civilized habitation.”
For more information on the OEDRP’s “Spring Ahead Weekend”, contact Bill Arnquist at 824-3152. To sign up as a volunteer, call Keith Jackson at 821-6730.
