Congratulations to the Cynthia & Delores McCrea, co-founders of Vandeventer Neighborhood Community Healing & Meditation Garden and Veteran Women of Influence, recipients of our 2023 Resident Leadership Award!
The Resident Leadership Award recognizes a person who:
Has shown incredible volunteerism and involvement in their community and/or community initiatives.
Goes above and beyond typical resident action to sit on boards, head committees, and/or encourage the engagement of other residents.
Works to challenge the status quo in the St. Louis region.
Humans of St. Louis storyteller Lindy Drew met with Cynthia and Delores to learn more about their passion for community work. Here’s some of what they had to say.
Cynthia: I was 14 when I left St. Louis, came back for my senior year, and then left again after graduation. I stayed away from Missouri for a long time while serving in the military and living in California and Boston. When I returned in my late 30s, I drove a U-Haul home with all my things and my vehicle behind it. And as I came into the City, I was wondering, “Why does the neighborhood look like this? This neighborhood needs some beautification!” I usually come down Taylor and cut straight down to Cook Avenue. And when I got ready to drive through, I was like, “Whoa, Ranken closed the street off.” I spoke with my parents to hear about what was going on in the neighborhood and asked if they had an active block captain or if any of the other streets had one too. Then I asked, “Can we have a block party?”
Since Mom has been in the neighborhood for a long time and gone to so many of the meetings, she knew a lot of people. She introduced me to the alderman and they were both telling me all the names of community activists in the area. Another alderman took me under his wing, had me in community leadership classes through UMSL, and helped me get a Proclamation from the City of St. Louis. Then I started holding neighborhood meetings. I don’t really like to network, but I’m sociable. I’ll set up an event in a heartbeat and then be behind the scenes doing all the grunt work. You know, admin things. My mom is the one who’s the mouthpiece. She’s great at that! So she’d call people to bring them out to the meetings and socialize.”
Delores: It was surprising my daughter took an interest in the neighborhood. She sees beauty in so many things and is so creative. I love that about her. So I was glad to help.
This one older man came to a neighborhood meeting I planned and was like, “Who are you? You’re a spy! We don’t know who you are?” So there I was trying to bring everybody together and people were telling me, “This is the Vandeventer Neighborhood.” Then other people were calling it the 18th Ward. I was so confused. So I decided to do some research on the neighborhood. I went to meetings like “Weed & Seed” and “Federation of Block Units” put on by organizations and neighborhood associations that have a strong history, know each other well, and work well together.
So then I’d go to meetings and say, “Let’s bring the 18th Ward together.” And people would say, “No, we’re the Vandeventer Neighborhood.” “Alright, well let’s bring the Vandeventer Neighborhood together.” “No, we’re the 18th Ward.” Or I’d hear, “We already have our own neighborhood association.” I just wanted to meet folks who wanted to see a better-looking neighborhood.
I started to wonder, “Does MY neighborhood have a community organization where folks come together? Is there an 18th Ward Association?” I was told, “No, but there’s a Vandeventer Neighborhood Association.” “Well, how can I go to those meetings?” “Oh, nobody does that. It’s owned by such and such.” So we went to this guy’s house who was 90-something and I introduced myself: “Hi! My name is Cynthia McCrea and I’m a block captain on Cook Avenue. I would love to get the Vandeventer Neighborhood Association up and going again.” He said, “I tried, but everybody was just so angry. No one could come together. There was so much arguing. Anyway, I moved over here now and I’m not giving up the Vandeventer Neighborhood Association’s 501(c)(3).”
So I created the Vandeventer Neighborhood Community Development Corporation’s Facebook page and we brought back block captains in the neighborhood and began participating in the National Night Out. With Mom’s help, every year since 2010, we started getting large food and beverage donations and blocked off the street to have get-togethers with roller skating, movies, or dancing. We didn’t care which block you lived on, we were trying to get all the residents together. We’ve had a band and a DJ and gave away baskets of food from Earthdance Organic Farm. Every time, people were like, “Yeah!”
Delores: I’m happy Cynthia came back to St. Louis because she’s a great help to me and she was a great help to her dad. And we as a community are meeting again. Now it would be nice if the neighbors met more frequently so we can all keep caring about each other and grow. That’s what a community is supposed to do. Way back, we used to have block parties. No shootin’, no cussin’. We all knew each other.
📷| Photos courtesy of Cynthia McCrea | The Vandeventer Place Gates located in Forest Park where they continue to be admired.
I lived in Boston for 10 years and only came back to St. Louis maybe once. My ex and I purchased a four-family flat in a low-income, Latino neighborhood by the wharf. So I was doing a lot of community service as a board member for a beautification project, putting together fences and painting. Who knew I was becoming a community activist? I was just trying to make my neighborhood look pretty because I had to come home to it every day. I wanted to come home to something like they do in Disney. *In a high-pitched singing voice* “Ahhh, it is bea-u-ti-ful. Everything is shiii-ning! Birds are tweee-ting! I’m smiii-ling!” That’s the land I was envisioning — where the flowers are dancing with you and it’s nice, peaceful, and picturesque. Don’t we all want that?
Well, when I first moved to Massachusetts, I lived in Cambridge for a bit while working at MIT. I was taking care of one of my professor’s houses while they were on sabbatical. They lived in this little cottage and it was so cute how they had it fixed up. Everyone on the block had cottage houses with gorgeous front yards and backyard gardens. I loved their home and garden tours. And I remember seeing white people walking down the street at one or two in the morning and was like, “Oh, this must be a safe neighborhood,” if you get my drift. That was my first time seeing gentrification.
Nowadays, in the Vandeventer Neighborhood, we have many nationalities of people riding up and down the streets on bikes and young men running in their uniforms training to get ready as athletes for the season. Cardinal Ritter College Prep was doing fundraising runs up Cook toward Ranken for a couple of years. And Transformation Church nearby had folks doing prayer walks at 5:45 AM around the neighborhood. Fast forward to COVID, there was a lot of violence, shootings, and young men doing doughnuts on Cook Avenue. I was getting phone calls from neighbors asking how to stop the behavior and who we could call. I thought, “Well, I am a block captain, but we need others who can recruit co-block captains. It’s about all of us.” So, us neighbors are still getting it going. And how did that come to be? The garden. Now it’s wonderful seeing folks walking up and down this street again, stopping by to see what’s going on and saying hi. People are even coming over to ask how they can create a community garden.
I can see directly over to the corner lot from my upstairs bedroom window. The grass was so high you could hide in there without having to bend down. I was like, “The heck with this!” So I went online with the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) to see if I could get that property through a Garden Lease Program. I saw the lots were available, so I went through Brightside’s Neighbors Naturescaping to show them my plan. I drew a map of three lots together and made four entrances to the garden. Saint Louis University removed a bunch of trees. And from going to the Missouri Botanical Garden, I loved seeing their pincushion circles with cacti and wanted something like that, too. We’re going to have hydrangeas on the outside. And, you know, people aren’t used to hydrangeas in this neighborhood. Why should we have a vegetable garden? Because the yard is so long and big enough. My grandmother always had a vegetable garden with spearmint. So when the grass was cut, it was a lovely smell. *Singing* “What a looov-ely Diiis-ney-laaand to be in!” It really is.
How does it feel to see all the work you and your daughter are doing in the neighborhood?
Delores: It’s about time. I feel invigorated because I love change.
Cynthia: I thought, An English tea garden with a fountain would be amazing in the garden. And a stumpery, dry creek bridge, and labyrinth would add the right touches because it gives residents the opportunity to meditate and enjoy some beautiful sites. We planned to have a human chess board with chess tables in the garden, too. Perhaps then we can have chess tournaments along with the St. Louis Chess Club. I remember at eight years old, our parents took us to Hershey, Pennsylvania, and I never forgot about the large human chessboard there. My brother and I had a blast.
We have plans for a mushroom garden to place all up and down the wood in the stumpery. I wanted bees, too. Why can’t we have some bees? So there’s a bee garden. And a pollinator garden. We have a sensory garden to touch and smell plants. Oh, and I always wanted to have a Little Free Library, so I called around and last year we received one from C.A.R.E. (Change & Action for Racial Equity in St. Louis). Then SLACO hosted the Little Free Library build and paint event. Our neighborhood has some awesome neighbors and things are kicking off more now I’ve got to live around prettiness and like the old cartoon, Smokey Bear says: “Give a Hoot! Don't Pollute.”
I want the community garden to be sustainable for years and years, so here’s how folks can participate. Option one, you can adopt-a-garden by maintaining it with a team. Option two, you can sponsor a space if you don’t have a team. Or, option three, you can maintain a garden space with your own team. We have sponsorship opportunities to provide and install fences, a tool shed, ornamental grasses, and water pipes to get water instead of using the nearby fire hydrant. There are also adopt-a-garden opportunities for the treescape area, hydrangea garden, pollinator garden, stumpery garden, human chessboard area, and English tea garden. A lot of elderly folks here would like to come into the garden so they need flat, ADA-accessible pathways to walk. Currently, they just admire it from the sidewalk. We could also use a sponsor for more signage so people know what plants are in each area.
Everything I do is a start, but I don’t have anyone with the rest of the experience I need with my little bit of knowledge to help blow things out of the park beyond phase one. People always tell me, “You’ll be alright.” And I’m wondering, “How did you get so far along when I’m still down here?” Nope, I can’t take care of all of this by myself. People come to the garden, help for a second, and get a feel for it. I keep thinking the right person will come along who can help me. And then someone does, they get overwhelmed, and leave. That’s happened like 20 million times.
What’s your vision and how’s it feel to make the impact you have made?
Will we be remembered for it? What will happen? Will the neighborhood get it together? Will neighbors actually come together and create a plan?
- Cynthia & Delores McCrea, Co-founders of Vandeventer Neighborhood Community Healing & Meditation Garden, Vandeventer Neighborhood Facebook page, and Veteran Women of Influence
