AREA CITIES EARN CIVIC RECOGNITION; INDIVIDUALS GET BETTERMENT AWARDS

Brenda Moyers of Scott City believes in lending a helping hand.

For 22 years, she has volunteered for countless civic projects. She helped organize Scott City's communitywide effort for Random Acts of Kindness Week in May.

Her civic kindness was recognized Monday when she won a Missouri Community Betterment adult leadership award.

Mary Ann Taylor, an energetic community volunteer in Dexter, also won one of the 10 adult leadership awards bestowed by the Missouri Betterment Conference in Columbia.

Some Southeast Missouri cities won high honors at the conference:

-- Malden finished first and Perryville third for community betterment for towns with populations of 4,888 to 8,703. Dexter received a certificate of merit.

-- Sikeston finished second among cities with populations of 8,804 to 18,150. Sikeston also received a first-place award for its youth programs. Poplar Bluff finished fourth in the competition.

Eighty communities statewide entered the competition. The Missouri Community Betterment Program recognizes the civic efforts of cities under 20,000 in population.

Cities were judged on the basis of all the civic projects and programs that they undertook from Sept. 1, 1996, to Aug. 31.

"They are judged on the body of their work," said Jim Gardner, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The Economic Development Department administers the Community Betterment program.

Cities receive cash awards ranging from $500 for first place to $100 for fifth. Other prizes are in the form of plaques.

The cash awards and plaques come from the privately funded Missouri Community Betterment Educational Fund, a not-for-profit corporation.

The Community Betterment program is in its 34th year. It is the oldest, continuous state-sponsored community improvement program in the nation, Gardner said.

Malden won for its civic support for various programs, including the Bootheel Education Center and the Bootheel Youth Museum.

The city of about 5,000 has a number of programs that involve the youth, said Carol Demaree, who co-chairs the community betterment committee of the Malden Chamber of Commerce.

High school students visit the elderly in nursing homes; parents and children have monthly events at the elementary school.

After various motel chains told Malden civic leaders that the city couldn't support a motel, a number of community residents bought shares of stock to build a 27-room motel 10 years ago.

The enterprise proved a success. "It has been renovated every two years," Demaree said.

The town's Chamber Maids, a beautification group, regularly plants flowers downtown.

"What is nice is that people understand that by working together you can get things done," she said.

Sikeston finished second in its population category.

But Steve McPheeters, executive director of the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce, preferred to talk Wednesday about the community's first-place award for youth programs. "We put a lot of emphasis on youth," he said.

He said the Elks Club's Just Say No to Drugs youth club involves more than 2,800 children from elementary school to high school. The children are involved in a number of projects, including collecting canned food for the Bootheel Food Bank.

Sikeston's YMCA of Southeast Missouri is only 3 years old. But the organization already has embarked on a $400,000 capital improvements program to renovate an old school gym that it uses.

Sikeston has its own student chamber of commerce at the high school. About 30 students are in the group, McPheeters said. The students tour area businesses and assist with the chamber's business exposition each spring.

McPheeters said the chamber invites area high school students to attend the expo. "We are trying to make that connection to young people to see that they do have a future here," he said.

Sikeston's black and white churches held their second Christian Block Party last June. The festival is designed to build trust between the largely segregated churches, McPheeters said.

"We are trying to build a future here and give people a sense of community,' he said.

Dexter's Mary Ann Taylor won an adult leadership award for her civic efforts that included everything from serving on the board of the senior center to chairing the city's parks and recreation board.

She is the youth minister at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and president of the Dexter Tree Council. The council encourages people to plant trees and has planted trees at schools and other sites.

Taylor said she was honored to win the award. "What's nice is knowing that your peers or contemporaries feel that what you are doing is of value."

Like Taylor, Moyers volunteers her time for civic progress.

"I feel we owe it to our community," said the former Scott City councilwoman. "If we are going to live here, we can't just sit back and complain about it," she said.