SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – National Good Neighbor Day is Tuesday, Sept. 28, and University of Missouri Extension encourages residents from across the state to find ways to celebrate good neighboring in their community.

Individuals and businesses around the state are starting to embrace the idea. Individuals use the holiday to launch personal efforts to build relationships with the eight closest neighbors to your home or apartment door.

Several businesses are using the holiday to bring their community together.

FLORIST IN HOUSTON, MO.

A florist in Houston, Missouri, is giving away 2,500 roses on that day. Visitors to the shop can pick up a dozen roses for free at D&L Florist (while supplies last). You keep one rose and give the other 11 away to neighbors.

According to Shari McCallister, the first good neighbor day event in Houston was in 2007, owner of D&L Florist.

"We have been doing it every year since except 2020 when he stopped due to covid," said McCallister.

McCallister said her shop started out giving away a small number of flowers, but it has grown to over 2,500 roses in a town with 2,950 people.

Each rose in the dozen now has a tag with the names of the community sponsors that make this significant celebration of good neighbors possible.

"Over the years, the impact we have had on our community with this kindness campaign is just tremendous," said McCallister. "People in our town look forward to it, and Houston has led the way in this area with National Good Neighbor Day."

I YouTube interview with McCallister is available online on the MUExtension417 channel.

ELSEWHERE IN MISSOURI

People’s Community Bank in Republic has planned a customer appreciation lunch and passes out "who is my neighbor" charts and National Good Neighbor Day information to the roughly 200 people that are expected to attend.

“Being a good neighbor is a big part of what we are all about,” said Todd Wojciechowski, a loan officer at the Republic branch.

St. Louis based non-profit The Hopeful Neighborhood is launching its own National Good Neighbor Day campaign. Individuals anywhere in the United States can use their Neighborhood Bingo card to win prizes. See https://www.hopefulneighborhood.org/ for all of the details.

"We believe everyone has gifts to share and, when you work together with your neighbors, the possibilities for making a difference in your neighborhood are endless," said Sara Johnson. "We are celebrating National Good Neighbor Day for the first time – we learned about it from David Burton and MU Extension -- by challenging individuals to show an act of neighborly love and kindness and report it back to us."

Hannah King with Community Partnership of the Ozarks is coordinating a Neighborhood Bingo competition during September for Neighborhood Associations in Springfield, Missouri. Individuals that participate can win individual prizes and the neighborhood with the most participation can win $400 for a neighborhood project.

“We have had a high level of interest in this project,” said King. “I learned about neighbor day in MU Extension’s Neighboring 101 class and this gives us an opportunity to resource our neighborhoods for a fun activity and potentially document over 2,000 acts of neighboring with just this one activity.”

Paddio, a modern lender for today's homebuyers that now calls Springfield home, is conducting a neighborhood bingo contest with their employees during the month of September.

“Good Neighbor is the inspiration behind our employee activity for this month,” said KC Brower, a Paddio employee. “David Burton helped us get the project going and I really look forward to documenting at the end of the month how this has helped our employees develop good neighbor relationships in the office, around our building and at their homes.”

IN GREENE COUNTY

In Greene County, residents are being asked to participate in the 1,000 Acts of Neighboring Challenge. From Sept. 26 to Oct. 2, every person who reports an act of neighboring will be entered into random drawings for gift cards and other neighbor-related prizes.

The best examples of neighboring in each Greene County community can receive a cash prize of up to $250 and be named the top neighbor in their community.

Individuals can report their acts of neighboring online too by searching for National Good Neighbor Day at https://extension.missouri.edu or going directly to the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NationalGoodNeighborDay .

According to Burton, individuals wanting to use the flyers, photos and other documents created by MU Extension for the neighbor day celebration can access them online.

MORE INFORMATION

In 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced the creation of a national day aimed at raising public awareness that good neighbors help achieve human understanding and build strong, thriving communities. Since then, National Good Neighbor Day has been celebrated on Sept. 28.

Neighboring is the art and skill of building relationships with the people who live in the closest proximity to you. Being a good neighbor offers tremendous health benefits, leads to reductions in crime, reduces loneliness, improves communities, and improves your quality of life.

To learn more about our "Engaged Neighbor" program or the impact of neighboring, go online to https://extension.missouri.edu or contact David Burton by email burtond@missouri.edu or telephone at (417) 881-8909. "Becoming an Engaged Neighbor" can also be found on Facebook.

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