Blockworker Beat: Marge Gilbert at 29th & Locust

One day in the mid-1970s, Marge Gilbert was outside painting the trim of her house, when someone came by asking if she would deliver the Park Hill Actionews. The Actionews, precursor to the GPHN, was then a letter-sized booklet featuring information specific to the work of the Park Hill Action Committee, precursor to the Greater Park Hill Community, Inc.

“That was way back when,” said Gilbert. Of course she said yes. She’s now considered a pillar of the Park Hill community for her thirty-plus years as a GPHC volunteer.

Gilbert originally hails from a farm in Iowa. “Back in those days, the ground was good and it raised good crops, animals and people.” Indeed, Marge is now 94, but has the energy of a much younger person. She credits her health to good food without pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or preservatives. She still manages the newspaper delivery on her block, though her grandkids now help with the route.

Around 1980, Gilbert became the Blockworker Coordinator, a position she held for 25 years. “I went around the block, and the next block, and so on until I got to know almost all of Park Hill,” remembered Gilbert. “In those days, blockworkers were asked to occasionally knock on the doors and see if the neighbors had concerns of any kind that GPHC could be helpful with.”

In Gilbert’s mind, the GPHC has been a model example of a registered neighborhood organization – one that other communities have sought to emulate.
“It was able to create a multiracial community on purpose,” said Gilbert.

The blockworker beat highlights “blockworkers” – residents who volunteer to deliver the Greater Park Hill News to their neighbors each month. There are currently 367 blockworkers delivering to 408 of the 516 residential blocks that comprise Greater Park Hill. GPHC is seeking volunteers to cover blocks that are not currently receiving the GPHN. For more information, contact Bernadette Kelly at newspaper@greaterparkhill.org.