Deseree Byrd

My connection to the west end goes back to to a child. I went to the daycare when I was a daycare back. When it was this building was Philly Street Neighborhood House. I'm born and raised here grew up here. I went to Heberle  elementary school and then I went to graduate from Taft High School. So my, my ancestry roots are deep in my grandmother grew up in the west end my great grandmother grew up in the West End, my great grandmother would have been 95 this year. She passed away two years ago, and she was still living in West End.  around the time that I was down here, going to school, we was just one big, happy like family community, everybody that went to school with from Heberle and Taft I grew up with.  I can remember, you're not a school, we all kind of just meet up on the walls of Heberle  and kind of just walking over here. And it was it used to be 20 25, maybe 30 of us. And that's just school. Even on holidays, we used to walk to walk to newport across the bridge, we still used to be 20 30 of us altogether. So back then, it was more felt like a like family atmosphere. Rather we was family or not whether we're related or not. We definitely all consider ourselves family.  some of the stores even across the street here, this was miss sues that was the corner store of ours. So just seeing that now that is being renovated for apartments and even a church up there. York on the corner of York now that's apartments Heberle  is now being kind of condos turned into condos. So you guys just seeing how everything has just changed. It's just just crazy to me. just being back, especially here in this business, it's just one big full circle moment for me. Just knowing how influential the impact that it had on me and my life. And my life successes, especially going division one playing a couple of years Pro and two Hall of Fame's and really I really just have to give Give credit to this place and the people in the people here. They helped raise me actually, my mom passed when I was two. So my aunt raises seven kids you know by herself. We got a lot of help from a neighbor or from from every holiday from Thanksgiving. I remember vividly times my Aunt couldn't afford nothing for for Christmas and the Neighborhood House we was adopted by the Neighborhood House every year. We had great Christmases on behalf of the Neighborhood House, and the people that was here we run out of time every year. Like I said, the West End was one big melting pot of just love in a family atmosphere. If there was a community events hosted by the Neighborhood House, they were hosted by the people in the community. The moms The aunts, uncles, cousins you got to you got a lot of people here even at the event Saturday, you know, I was telling a friend like I see all my neighborhood aunties and mamas, you know, you just you call out calling people aunties just because that's your friends, Auntie you call them people, Mom, just because that's your friend, mom. And that's really just what it was. For us. Everybody was a family. I knew I couldn't. Regardless if my aunt was around and I knew if I was around the neighborhood mom or aunt that I still couldn't act certain ways without being checked or discipline. So So yeah, so just with that, like community, love and that community family, we all acted accordingly.

I would definitely love to be involved and be one of those aunties of the community