For 15 years, Martha Uetrecht has lived next door to Bobbie Van Treese. When Uetrecht picks up the mail, Van Treese seems to be there, peering across the lot from her own house. When Uetrecht and her husband take a walk in the neighborhood, Van Treese is watching again, keeping a constant eye on the couple. In fact, when Uetrecht waters her lawn, she half-expects to find Van Treese at the other end of the garden hose. Where Martha Uetrecht goes, it seems, so goes Bobbie Van Treese.

“Bobbie knows every time that I go in my garage, to the bathroom, or any part of the house,” Uetrecht says.

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“When I first moved in, I probably thought that she was a busybody, but I didn’t realize what she was doing. Now, I’m glad that Bobbie knows and watches that closely.

“She does it because she cares. She’s been like a mother to me and like a grandmother to my children.

“Bobbie Van Treese, other than crime-watch chairperson or whatever position she may hold, is first my friend because she’s the kind of person that you can count on when you get in a bind.”

Making A Difference

Not too many people find themselves on the cover of a magazine because they’re someone’s friend. Bobbie Van Treese is different.

She has been a friend not just to one or two people, but to an entire neighborhood – the Gastonwood-Coronado Hills neighborhood, nestled between Gaston Avenue to the north and the Hollywood Heights neighborhood to the south.

Van Treese and her husband, Thad, have lived in their same home on Casa Loma since 1959. Like many longtime Gastonwood-Coronado Hills residents, they have seen a lot of changes, some for the better and some for the worse.

In 1982, as a result of the changes taking place, Van Treese and others formed the Gastonwood-Coronado Hills neighborhood association.

Over the years, Van Treese has served the association in several capacities. She has been president of the association twice and vice president once. She also has led the neighborhood’s crime watch program for the past three years.

It seems as if Van Treese is just about everywhere in the neighborhood.

Each year since we began publishing in 1991, the Advocate has solicited nominations annually from our readers to honor a local resident or volunteer who is contributing his or her time to live. When reviewing nominations, we look for someone who works diligently and selflessly behind-the-scenes. We look for someone who is an achiever rather than a talker, a hard-worker rather than a media ham.

When it came time to select the winner of this year’s Advocate Award, we found all of these qualities, and more in Bobbie Van Treese.

A Helping Hand

Much of what people don’t know about Van Treese, 62, are the things she does in an unofficial capacity, the things that don’t fall within the prescribed duties of whatever position she may hold at a given time.

Neighbors relate stories of elderly couples in need and how Bobbie and Thad came to the rescue.

There are countless stories about how the Van Treese delivered groceries or medicine to shut-in neighbors – “anything that we can do to help,” as Van Treese says.

Sgt. Tony Crawford of the Dallas Police Department has known Van Treese for several years. He says volunteers who possess her drive and commitment are rare.

“We have a lot of crime watch chairpersons, and she is one of a handful who go a step beyond to make sure that her neighbors are taken care of,” Crawford says.

“She is very dedicated to her neighborhood and to improving the way of life for anyone who lives in Dallas.”

Meg Glass, president of the neighborhood association in 1996, first met Van Treese when the association was formed. She says Van Treese always has been a dedicated volunteer regardless of whether she held an official position.

“She’s just one of those people that you can rely on,” says Glass, who has lived in the same La Vista home for 40 years.

“When she says that she’ll do something, you can forget it – it’s done.”

Jeanette Crumpler, a 37-year resident of the Gastonwood-Coronado Hills neighborhood, says people are comfortable talking with Van Treese about their problems.

She cites Van Treese’s communication skills and caring nature as her strongest assets. Crumpler says that while Van Treese doesn’t seek the spotlight, she deserves recognition.

“A lot of what she does is behind the scenes,” Crumpler says.

“While she ahs been recognized for some of the things that she’s done, there are a lot of things that people do not know about.”

A Project of Hope

A few years ago, plans were released to build a housing project at the foot of Gastonwood-Coronado Hills, just on the other side of the railroad tracks that border the neighborhood to the south. Many neighborhood residents were livid, and the neighborhood associations of Gastonwood-Coronado Hills and Hollywood-Santa Monica teamed up to fight the project.

“We didn’t want it there,” Van Treese says. “We were just like anyone else. We were frightened.”

The fight was to no avail, and the result was the creation of the Town Park Housing Project.

Town Park brought with it the stereotype and negative reputation that seems to accompany all federally supported housing projects. Having lost the battle to block the project, Van Treese decided to wage a new battle – one to prevent the characteristic “project life” stereotypes from becoming reality.

Van Treese says she realized the only way to ensure a peaceful co-existence between Town Park and her neighborhood would be to help the project’s residents live in dignity.

With that thought in mind, Van Treese offered to help.

“She is one of the most dynamic women I have ever met,” says Officer Rosemary Hills, crime prevention specialist at Town Park. “There is nothing that she does not do to help.”

Hills first met Van Treese in April 1993, one month after she was assigned to the storefront at Town Park. Van Treese and her husband came down to the storefront to introduce themselves.

“From that day on, she has been a wonderful person to work with,” Hills says.

“She is the type of volunteer who does not wait for you to call her. She calls you and let’s you know that she’s here and available to help.”

Van Treese has been involved in several programs and activities aimed at improving the environment and attitude of the residents of Town Park.

Last summer, she and other volunteers coordinated a 15-week reading program for children living at Town Park. The program concluded with an awards program and party at the Jonsson Library Downtown.

Hills says Van Treese and volunteer Sharon McCormick would spend 30 minutes to an hour on designated evenings reading to the children and listening to the children read to them.

Established by a federal grant, the program was designed to improve the children’s reading skills.

“The main thing is that we want to help the children to read correctly when they’re young,” Van Treese says. “That way, they’ll get more out of school.”

In the fall, Van Treese instructed a drama class at Town Park that culminated with an end-of-the-year Christmas program. The class was popular with children, and Van Treese’s commitment earned praise from not only Hills, but from parents as well.

“Because of Mrs. Van Treese, the kids have more self-esteem,” says Tiffany Henderson, 20, a mother of two children and a three-year resident of Town Park.

“They respect each other and are doing better in school.”

In addition to her work with the drama class and reading program, Van Treese also was instrumental in planning a back-to-school rally in August. Residents of Town Park remember the festive day for the parade that Van Treese helped organize and all of the special visitors in attendance for the rally.

Dallas Police Chief Ben Click was on hand, along with members of the mounted police force. Longtime Dallas Cowboys fanatic Crazy Ray also made it out for the celebration.

“You brought yourself, and they took care of everything,” says Linda Scott, 36, a resident of Town Park since 1989. “They had cheerleaders, gospel singers and a band.”

Scott’s daughter is a 13-year-old Quinnitta Thomas, a 7th grader at J.L. Long Middle School. She participates in most activities Van Treese coordinates at Town Park because Scott says Van Treese treats the kids well. Thomas echoes her mother’s sentiments.

“She is fun, nice, sweet, and considerate,” Thomas says. “She teaches us that we can be whatever we want to be when we grow up.”

Over the years, Van Treese has also been instrumental in providing school supplies for the children. Many Town Park families can’t afford proper supplies. Without Van Treese’s help, the families would be forced to send their children to school empty-handed.

“Thanks to Mrs. Van Treese, the children here go to school with supplies in hand like the other children whose families can provide,” Hills says.

To provide supplies, Van Treese enlisted the support of the Gastonwood-Coronado Hills neighborhood association, drawing from association funds as well as individual donations.

“We’ve got good people in our neighborhood,” Van Treese says. “They just need to know what’s going on.”

Food for Thought

Van Treese also helped begin a food pantry at Town Park to prevent families from going hungry and stealing from one another. Each year from Thanksgiving until Christmas, Van Treese leaves a box at the entrance of the Minyard Food Store on Abrams at Gaston for individuals to donate food. The donated food is taken to Town Park, where it is placed in the storefront food pantry.

“When people’s food stamps run out and they are hungry, they will steal from one another,” Hills says. “Now if they are hungry, all they need to do is come to the storefront pantry.”

Hills says Van Treese exemplifies the storefront motto: “People helping other people excel.”

Van Treese has proven that a housing project can co-exist peacefully with two middle class neighborhoods, in this case Gastonwood-Coronado Hills and Hollywood-Santa Monica, when residents take the initiative to volunteer their time and goodwill.

“There are 300 to 375 children in this project, and she has taken them on as a second family making sure that she can provide for them,” Hills says.

“She does not look at the ethnic background of the residents; she sees it as people helping people.”

Just Doing What’s Right

Perhaps no one knows Van Treese like her daughter, Gastonwood-Coronado Hills resident Janie Meyer. Meyer has never known her mother to have met a “stranger.” Meyer says her mother is tireless, a constant worrier forever trying to be everyone’s mother, teacher and friend.

“It’s her spirit that moves her,” Meyer says. “There are some people on earth who never know what life is about. When she knows that she is out doing something for someone, she feels good.

“Every time someone meets her, they remember her for the rest of their life because she touches them somehow.”

And that’s all Van Treese wants: to be there for people in need.

“I’ll do it till the day I die,” Van Treese says. “To know that I helped one child or one elderly person in this whole world is all that matters to me.”