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LISC to honor Mary Thompson at September event

Virginia LISC will honor longtime Church Hill resident and community advocate Mrs. Mary Thompson at an upcoming Celebrating Community Leaders event on Sept. 28, 2017.

From the announcement:

Mrs. Thompson went to high school, married her husband, raised five children, and served as the Fairmount School secretary all in Church Hill. As a resident for the past 65 years, she has seen the ups and downs of the community.

“In the area I live, it had become 85 percent blight around the late ’80s. And I knew as a resident, I could not allow that to happen,” she said. “So as a result of wanting to do something about it, I, along with five others, formed the New Visions Civic League in 1993.”

As a founding member of the New Visions Civic League, Mrs. Thompson worked alongside community developers in Church Hill to revitalize her neighborhood.

“When I moved into this community, it was prosperous, it was beautiful. But the blight came. So even though we were not part of the problem, we certainly were going to be a part of the solution because we wanted to make our community beautiful again,” she said.

Mrs. Thompson is serious about changing her community. She not only works with housing nonprofits and community developers, but she also befriends the local community police officers in her neighborhood and is quick to call them up if she sees suspicious activity.

Most recently, she has helped Virginia LISC canvas the 25th Street commercial corridor in Church Hill.

“We see the 25th Street corridor as the vein of the economic portion of our community,” said Mrs. Thompson. “So we are working hard to revitalize that.”

Virginia LISC is proud to call Mrs. Mary Thompson a partner in Church Hill and is excited to honor her at the Celebrating Community Leaders Event on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017.

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