The Dynamic Duo: Partners in Cleaning Up Their Community
By Renita K. Minor, Community Coordinator
Pat Bollinger, an unnamed resident, Walter Bollinger, and Weed and Seed Officer Lt. DePew are continually working to keep the community safe.
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It all started when Walter and Pat Bollinger looked around and saw that their community had all the trappings of a problem neighborhood—drugs, prostitution, trash, tall weeds, and abandoned cars. Neighbors complained and wanted something done, but they didn't want to help.
"I thought, 'How can kids become great kids when they're faced with all of this,'" recalled Pat. Although she is normally a soft-spoken person, Pat was not afraid to get loud when it came to taking back the community.
At first the Bollingers thought no one would listen to them or take them seriously, especially because they had lived in their home for more than 7 years and had never gotten involved before. But after hearing more and more gun shots near their home in 1998, Pat shared her feelings and concerns with the Keep Indianapolis Beautiful organization and then with the Indianapolis Police Department and community leaders. She attended community meetings and learned about Westside Weed and Seed and some of its programs. As a couple, the Bollingers also went to meetings about community policing and meetings of the Westside Cooperative Organization, Inc. (an umbrella organization, also referred to as WESCO, that serves other neighborhoods as well as the Weed and Seed area), and they were asked to become crime watch residents for their neighborhood.
So the Bollingers enrolled in the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center's (INRC) Leadership Academy. INRC is a private, nonprofit organization that provides tools, training, and skills to neighborhood organizations and residents so they can effectively address the issues that affect their neighborhood's quality of life. Through INRC, the Bollingers learned how to make motions at meetings, how to take minutes, and how to become effective leaders. They also took two Spanish classes through WESCO/Westside Weed and Seed's Hispanic Informational Neighborhood Taskforce on Sensitivity (H.I.N.T.S.) program to better work with the Hispanic population, which is growing rapidly throughout the neighborhood.
In addition, the Bollingers rolled up their sleeves and got involved with Westside Weed and Seed. They supervised youth at the local shopping mall and spoke out about crime and other issues that plagued their community on the "13 Listens" television station that invites residents to come in and talk about community issues. They also set up a tire dropoff campaign to get rid of the many tires abandoned in the neighborhood, and thus helped get rid of mosquitoes, which were breeding in the standing water left in these tires every time it rained.
As a couple, the Bollingers also developed a crime watch club in 1998 for which Pat is recruiting new residents today. Since then, this "dynamic duo" has been involved in Crime Watch Captain trainings; the Citizen's Police Academy; National Night Out; Operation My Town—Keep Indianapolis Beautiful; Adopt a Median (at Concord and Walnut Streets); after-curfew street sweeps with police officers and Marion County prosecutors; and cleanups on their own and with the community, to name a few. Walter is now a Citizen's Volunteer Police Officer, and, as a couple, the Bollingers have received numerous awards and certificates.
"After working with Westside Weed and Seed and seeing all the positive changes in our neighborhood—crime down, cleaner areas, more residents coming to community policing and other meetings to report drug houses and crime, and especially the relationship Walter and I have built with our police department since 1998—there's no way we will back up now, despite being harassed, threatened, and not being liked by some of our neighbors," Pat vowed.
Now in their mid-50s, Pat and Walter are still the "dynamic duo" in their neighborhood. They are very active in community policing meetings, neighborhood cleanups, scouting out abandoned houses and cars, and reporting illegal activities. They continue to get neighbors involved in community events such as National Night Out, the Annual Roundball Challenge, and the Neighborhood Alliance for Child Safety.
For more information, contact:
Renita Minor
Westside Weed and Seed Community Coordinator
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