Atlanta woman carrying on George H.W. Bush's legacy as a "point of light"
ATLANTA — Annie Moore is reclaiming a street corner at the intersection of blight and despair. In Atlanta's English Avenue neighborhood, she said there are drug deals, prostitution and gambling.
"I have a problem with seeing your business on the street," Moore said. "You have to have respect for your neighbors."
So Moore went to work.
"The first thing I did was build chess tables," she said.
She brought truckloads of donated dirt into an abandoned church, with hopes of the space becoming an open-air market.
"There's no place in English Avenue for people to gather and we're trying to make this the gathering spot," Moore said.
The 57-year-old grandmother personifies President George H.W. Bush's "points of light," but at first she didn't know she had it in her.
"I just started doing it. I don't want to build another neighborhood like English Avenue somewhere else in Atlanta. I want to fix what's going on here," Moore said.
In 1990, the former president established the Daily Points of Light Award to honor volunteers making a difference. On Jan. 15, Moore was named a Daily Point of Light — the 6,175th since Mr. Bush launched the program.
"He's allowed a whole lot of us to go down in history with him, like, we're a part of him," she said.
Now they have shared history as lights that lead the way.